#the weather was mostly sunny with some clouds

[ijustwantgoodopinions]

Rei at the Movies

[roosterr]

firewatch | day 04

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john price x gn!reader wc; 4.6k summary; maybe you shouldn't complain about having nothing to do, or some idiot tourists will change that

haha yeah it's been three months, whoopsie. started hating writing for a while there, but i'm better now lol. pls enjoy, this series is a labour of love 💕

you severely underestimated how fucking tedious this would be.

honestly, you thought you could handle it. all you have to do is look out the window, take note of the weather every now and then, fuck around for the rest of the day, then rinse and repeat for a few months – and you're getting paid, to top it all off.

sounds easy enough.

you look outside, no smoke. you check the weather, it's sunny. two hours later, no smoke and not a cloud in the sky. six hours later, still no smoke, and, would you believe it, it's still clear blue skies and suddenly three days have gone by and somehow you're going stir crazy in the middle of a beautiful state park where most people would go to cure their cabin fever.

it's one thing to be left completely alone with your thoughts for months and months on end, but when you're so adamant about avoiding said thoughts, it turns out there really isn't much else to do.

john was right then, you suppose. people only ever take this job if there's something wrong with them.

well, you weren't completely alone. you take a sip of your tea, lukewarm by now, and turn your eyes to the radio next to you. john isn't bad company, truthfully he's probably the only reason you haven't gone completely insane yet. it makes you wonder how he possibly does this every year, with no other–

"fuckin' hell, is that fireworks?"

john's sudden exclamation startles you mid-sip of your tea, a fit of coughs wracking your body when you accidentally inhale some. you're about to scold him for scaring the shit out of you, but his voice comes through the radio again before you can start.

"out your west window, have a look." he grumbles, low and irritated.

you twist your neck to look, wiping the remnants of your tea from your face with one hand as the other puts the mug down on your desk. your eyes narrow at the sight of the colourful sparks and smoke in the air. "shit, i see them. that's super illegal, right?"

"illegal, and just flat out stupid." john replies, the frustration in his voice rumbling even deeper than usual. "you're gonna need to get down there and stop 'em."

"is…" you blink as another firework explodes above the treeline, "...is that really my job?"

you hear him huff on the other end. "your job is whatever i say it is, rookie. no rangers nearby to call, it's just you'n me out 'ere."

"great." you mumble dryly, casting a mournful glance at the half empty mug of tea sitting on your desk. "so, what do i do? kick their asses?"

"if ya like," john replies in a chuckle, "just make sure they won't come back, and confiscate the fireworks."

"aye aye, captain." you raise your hand in a mock salute entirely for your own amusement, and though he doesn't respond, you hear the click of his radio and an intake of breath as if he wanted to say something, but changed his mind. you shake off his odd reaction and turn away to look over your fire finder at the various trails and paths. "so… how do i get down to the lake?"

"the trail north of your tower should take you." he says, prompting you to pull out your own map and quickly make a note of the trail he mentioned. it looked straightforward enough, a slightly meandering path through the forest leading to the clearing around the lake. "there's a shale slide along the way, so grab some rope. should be in one of your boxes."

your gaze finds said boxes exactly where you'd left them on the floor beside your desk, partially unpacked but still mostly untouched. you sigh and get on your knees, cursing your previous laziness as you rummage through them one by one. it's a mess of random supplies; a few boxes of matches, a candle or three, an old lamp that looks like something a coal miner would use, even a few rat traps that you keep a mental note of for future reference.

"got it." you announce, only a minute or two of searching later, standing again as you hook one of the clips onto your belt loop and let the rope coil hang there. "so you know this park pretty well, huh?"

john hums in agreement, and in the background you hear something that sounds like the door opening and closing, and then the buzz of the wind under his words. "this area, yeah. been doin' this quite a few years now. plus, i'm the one who drops off supplies at your tower."

"oh, so that's your handwriting on the boxes?" you grin, looking back at the boxes that still lay strewn across your floor as you grab your light bag and head out of your own tower. "maybe you should work on that. shit's barely legible."

"i'll make a note." he chuckles, and the conversation between you paired with the lovely scenery as you descend the stairs almost lets you forget about the reason you're going out in the first place.

unfortunately, your reprieve is interrupted by the echo of another firework in the distance, louder now that you're outside. the colourful sparks are still half visible over the treetops against the late afternoon sky, and you frown at the display.

you find the trail to the lake fairly easily, and cast a glance over at john's tower before it's blocked by the trees, just as yet another bang scares the birds.

you scoff as you watch them fly away, narrowing your eyes at the faint traces of smoke still visible in the sky. "can you hear those from over there?"

"just about." john answers, an amused kind of suspicion is his voice. "why?"

"oh, no reason. but if you happen to hear any screaming, do me a favour and ignore it." you try to disguise the grin in your voice, but you can't help the laugh that slips out when your heart john's rumbling chuckle through the radio.

"i'll tell the police it must've been the foxes."

another airy laugh escapes you at his words. john does seem to have a way of improving your mood, even when it had been decidedly soured by the morons threatening to set the forest alight. and, honestly, it’s difficult to stay annoyed when you’re surrounded by shafts of golden afternoon sun breaking through the canopy of leaves, and the soft rustling of the breeze through the branches. 

the forest feels almost dream-like in this light.

you’d mostly stuck to the southern trails on the handful of walks you’ve taken over the last couple days, taking to avoiding the lake since john told you it was somewhat of a tourist hotspot. it’ll be nice to see a new area of the park, you think, even if you’re only going there to yell at some people.

a twig snaps ahead, just off the path in the underbrush to your right, and you pause.

a dear trots into the patch of sunlight that falls through the trees to the centre of the worn trail, and it pauses too. you stare at it, and it’s deep black eye stares right back. it’s beautiful, you can just about think to yourself, your awe keeping you frozen in place.

and then, just as quickly as it had appeared, it’s gone.

"woah." you murmur, still gazing at where it disappeared into the trees. a smile pulls at the corners of your lips as you click the button on your radio again. "a huge deer just crossed the path in front of me."

a moment passes before john answers, a hint of a teasing laugh on his breath. "they do live out here, love."

you click your tongue, rolling your eyes to yourself as you step over a branch to begin walking again. "alright smartass, some of us don't spend ninety percent of our lives in the middle of the woods."

"i'd say it's more like sixty." he chuckles in response, wiping the faux annoyance from your face with ease. "what did it's antlers look like?"

you quirk an eyebrow and cast a look back over your shoulder at the trees where the deer had gone, but the point of his question still flies over your head. "uh, normal?"

another rumbling chuckle comes through the static before john adds, "which way did they point?"

"oh…" you hum, sidestepping a leafy shrub growing over the path as you think. "to the sides? like, outwards, I guess?"

"probably an elk then, not a deer."

you smile, somewhat impressed, but you're not exactly surprised. for whatever reason, john does seem like the type to know that kind of thing. "that's actually pretty cool. how’d you know that?"

"the informative poster provided by the park, which i understand is in both of our towers." he replies, a sense of smug amusement lifting his voice, which earns another eye roll from you that he'll never see.

"right, right. i definitely read that…" you mutter, which earns you a lighthearted scoff from john.

"did you at least read the one about the poisonous plants ‘round here?" he adds, and you grimace stepping over a ditch in the trail because, well, you know you should've, but there's only your own laziness to blame for ignoring it.

you clear your throat, stifling your grin as you answer in a decidedly unconvincing tone, "...yes–"

"christ alive…"

"–but, just to be safe, i'm not gonna touch any plants, so i don't have to worry." you continue – and as if on cue, a tall nettle waves in the breeze into your path, and you're only narrowly able to dodge it before it can brush your skin. you tut at the plant, like it can understand you, and it almost feels as if the park itself wanted to prove you wrong.

you'll keep that close call to yourself, you decide. what john doesn't know can't hurt him, right?

"i'm gettin' grey hairs talkin' to you." john mutters, and you can so clearly picture the disappointed shake of his head that no doubt accompanied his reply.

"you don't already have grey hairs?" you tease, unable to stop the laugh that comes through your words.

"oi, i'm not that old!"

"i know, i know," you chuckle, "but you do sound like a guy who's smoked a pack a day for twenty years."

"more of a cigar man, myself." he pauses, and you can hear the wind pick up in the background when he doesn't take his finger off the button. "not a habit you can keep up out here though, unfortunately."

"you could if you wanted, then we'd both have a fire to watch." you reply, your smile easy now, like you're talking to an old friend rather than someone you met three days ago.

"you're full of good ideas, aren't ya?"

the conversation dies down again after that, a comfortable atmosphere replacing it. the sun has gotten slightly lower in the sky since you'd started walking, and while it wasn't getting dark yet, it would be soon. wandering around the forest at night was possibly the last thing you wanted to be doing, so you'd better hurry this up.

thankfully you're not walking for much longer before you come to a break in the trees. the trodden path you'd been following gives way to the rocky ground, and just ahead you can see the sudden drop off that you assume must be what you're looking for.

you come to a stop at the edge, and gaze down at the steep descent in front of you.

"hey, i found the slope." you announce, clicking the talk-lock button on your radio so your hands are free to start unfurling the rope. your eyes drift to the slope despite how hard you try to keep them on what your hands are doing, and a spark of anxiety shoots through you as you look over it. "am i really going down this?"

"unless you wanna take the long way."

"i don't… but that's gotta be, like, a fifteen foot drop." you grimace at the sharp stones making up the ground below, your hands twirling the rope nervously between them. suddenly you weren't feeling so confident about this.

"that steep?" he sounds surprised when he asks, maybe even slightly concerned. "s'been a while since i've gone that way, must've had a landslide at some point…"

you seriously would've preferred he kept that thought to himself, because now there's an undeniable feeling, right at the forefront of your mind, that this was not going to end well for you.

"landslide. right." you murmur flatly. "that doesn't fill me with optimism."

if john's at all worried about this like you are, he does a fantastic job of hiding it. his voice is unshakably confident when he responds, "you'll be fine, just make sure your clips are tightened."

you sigh, hesitant to continue, but proceed to tie one end of the rope and loop it into the clip on the anchor point just before the drop off – a sturdy looking rock that you sincerely hope isn't going anywhere – and internally you debate over just cutting your losses and turning back, but considering how high the fire risk is right now, there's no way your conscience will let you delay getting to the lake.

you sigh, giving the rope an experimental tug to make sure it really is secure, which it does appear to be, before throwing the rest of it down the slope.

you really don't want to do this, but unfortunately, you really have to.

"alright, i'm going down. if i die it's your fault." you grumble, hearing a muffled chuckle from john as you take the rope firmly in both hands and tread backwards over the edge of the slope.

you only get two steps from the top before you hear the rope creak. the sound brings the taste of bile to the back of your throat, but you do your best to swallow it down. it's probably an old rope, a weird noise doesn't mean anything – it's the same as the noises your tower makes, right? old things creak, that's just what they do. no need to panic.

it's not like you have much of a choice. you're already suspended by it, and there's no turning back now. your palms start to sweat.

"don't do that." you scold the twine under your breath, willing the inanimate object to hear you. "don't make weird noises."

one more step and the rope creaks again, much louder this time and significantly more worrying. it sends a cold bolt of panic up your spine that you don't get to react to before you hear the unmistakable sound of fibres snapping. "wait– no no no no���!"

you vaguely hear john call your name, but it's muffled by your cut off shout as the rope snaps in half and sends you free-falling down the slope.

time seems to slow as you watch the rest of your rope get further away, your wide eyes meeting the vast blue of the sky above with only one thought on your mind.

this is gonna hurt.

a heavy thud reverberates through your skull when you hit the ground. hard. the impact knocks the air from your lungs and forces a strained whine from your lips. jagged stones dig into your skin through your clothes, only adding to the pain already radiating from your upper back.

john calls your name again, his voice a little more frantic this time, you note through the pain fogging your mind. "sitrep– uh, talk to me, what's happened?"

"ugh, shit…" another groan leaves your chest as you push yourself up onto your elbows, attempting to blink away the dark spots that float in your vision. "my fucking rope snapped. fell down the slope…"

"shit." he hisses. "you broken?"

"what? no," you mutter through a deep intake of breath, finally gathering the strength to sit up fully with a hand attempting to soothe the ache between your shoulders, but it doesn't do much to help. "my back just really fuckin' hurts…"

"right…" he murmurs, letting the silence hang between you for a moment too long before continuing. "the rope snapped?"

"yeah… made some fucked up noises and then broke clean in two." you send a withering glare to the other end of your rope, still hanging tauntingly from the top of the slope with a distinct air of mockery you didn't know an inanimate object could be capable of giving off.

standing requires a lot more energy than you currently have in you, but the distant sound of a firework reminds you again why you're even out here – so with a laboured grunt, you push yourself upright through the sharp ache in your back and brace yourself on your knees as your vision spins.

you hear john sigh absently over the wind on his end. "i'm sorry, this is my fault. i should'a checked the supplies 'fore i dropped 'em off at ya tower, i would'a noticed–"

"john, hey, it's fine, okay?" you interrupt his rambling before he can get too far into his own head, and frown to yourself. "but i'm not getting back to my tower that way…"

"there's– there's another path back, from the lake." his voice is quieter than usual, and he stumbles over his words – something so incredibly unlike him, it has you on edge from such a small change.

you hum, looking back up at the other end of your rope with a disdainful sigh as you brush the rest of the gravel from your pants. "as long as there's no more abseiling, i think that'll work."

john doesn't say anything more, which has you concerned, but you decide not to push it. he's clearly cut up about what happened, even if you don't completely get why, and you get the impression that moving on from the subject would be best for both of you.

the way the small valley is shaped leads you easily to the continuation of the trail, and before long the rocky ground gives way again to softer forest floor. you find yourself in another larger clearing, open enough that you can see ahead where the path disappears between more rocks and overgrown shrubbery. the lake must be nearby now, you think, because the distant sound of voices reaches your ears periodically on the wind.

the radio silence from john lingers in the air, heavy and stifling despite the great distance between you. the solitude leaves you with your thoughts, wondering why he was acting so responsible for something so beyond both of your control, and though you've resolved to leave the topic alone, you really can't seem to stop thinking about it.

another bang of a firework echoes around the clearing and you regret complaining about the tedium of the last few days. this was not what you wanted.

you drag your aching body across the rest of the clearing and brush a low-hanging branch out of your way as you make your way through the overgrowth between you and the lake. a clunking sound catches your attention, and you turn your gaze downwards to an empty beer can, followed by another further down path, then a few more, and a few more.

"holy shit, what is wrong with these people…" you mutter through gritted teeth, crouching down to gather as many as you can into your bag as you go – with only a short grumble at the pain it causes your back.

with a deeply exasperated sigh, you sling your bag back over your shoulder just as you come to the end of the trail and the bushes give way to the clearing of the lake. there's a small, raised island in the centre, where you can see the group lounging by the water with their music turned all the way up.

god, could these people get any more obnoxious?

you take a second to steel yourself, because this was not going to be easy, before cupping your hands around your mouth and shouting, "hey!"

they ignore you. of course they do.

"hey!" you yell louder this time, and thankfully they acknowledge you by finally turning off their music and glaring at you from their perch. you're probably supposed to handle situations like this with decorum, but as a result of the last hour or so your patience has worn incredibly thin, and you really can't find it in you to care. "fireworks? really? are you guys completely fucking stupid?"

they scoff and look incredulously between each other, before who you assume to be the ringleader yells back, "what the hell is your problem?"

"yeah, it's a free country!" one of the others adds.

"that's not how that works…" you sigh to yourself, pinching the bridge of your nose and willing yourself to keep at least some modicum of composure. "you kids better get the fuck outta here! right now!"

they scoff again, and pointedly turn away from you. good god, the urge to throw rocks at them was getting harder and harder to fight.

"ignore them, it's just some random fucking loser creeping on teenagers…" the ringleaders comment is only just audible from where you're standing, but you do hear it, and it only serves to fuel your temper.

"what? no, i'm–" you falter for a split second, debating the consequences of the lie you're about to tell, but the side of you that just wants these idiots out of your life wins over fairly easily. "i'm a park ranger! and if you don't leave now, i can guarantee the cops are gonna be waiting for you when you do!"

a beat of silences passes, before they begin to mutter amongst themselves.

"oh shit… are they for real?"

"i don't care dude, i can't get arrested again, my parents would kill me!"

"let's just get outta here, this is freaking me out…"

you fold your arms tightly over your chest and watch them scuttle to gather their things with a scowl. they collectively send you one last withering look, which you readily mirror, before they wade back into the lake and swim across to the bank on your left.

"fucking finally…" your gaze follows them until they weave between the trees and you can no longer see them. with a tired sigh, you bring up your radio and move to check where they disappeared to as you update john. "hey, they're gone."

there's a moment before john replies, sounding not quite as downtrodden as he was earlier, which you take as a good sign. "yeah? how'd it go?"

"i hope they drown." you grumble in response.

he laughs, genuine and deep, and you feel your lingering annoyance melting away with the sound. "let's hope they won't come back."

"are you…" you clear your throat, weaving your way between trees and bushes. "are you okay? about earlier, i mean?"

"yeah, i'm– i'm fine." john answers quickly, and you get the strong feeling that he's deflecting when he continues, "let's just get you back to your tower, eh?".

"and far away from these fucking tourists…" you mutter, which earns you another light chuckle from him. just the memory of them has you cringing as you brush through a few bushes. "completely unrelated question, but would i get in trouble if i, hypothetically, lied about being a park ranger?"

"hypothetically, i reckon we could keep that between me and you."

a small grin finds its way onto your face, just as you reach where you assume those kids had been camping. there's more empty cans scattered by the worn dirt track, which you gather up with a string of curses under your breath.

following the trail of litter as you round the trees, the first thing that meets your eyes is the remains of their campfire, still smouldering and glowing orange in the evening shadows.

"idiots lit a campfire, too." you seethe, sharply kicking dirt over the embers until you're sure it's out. "the fire risk is colour-coded for assholes like them, and somehow it still went over their heads…"

john sighs. "don't think too much about it. knobheads like that wouldn't get it if it smacked 'em in the face."

"who knows? maybe one of these days i will." you're only half joking, but the smile must come across in your voice because john's rumbling chuckle follows again.

"right, and when they ask 'how on earth d'you get fired from a job where all you do is sit on your arse all day', what're you gonna tell 'em?"

"that i beat up some dumb kids and saved the park from being burnt to a crisp?" you grin, starting in the direction you vaguely remember another trail ending, but a glint of light catches your attention from the corner of your eye.

you crouch down, and forgotten behind the bush is a half empty bottle of cheap whiskey. nice.

you slip it into your bag and call it the service charge.

"i think the coppers'll be more concerned with the first bit." john quips. you laugh through the twinge of pain as you stand again, and hope he doesn't notice.

"that's their problem. i'll be the people's hero." you say, earning a other deep chuckle that grows a light feeling in your chest. you get a few more strides up the path before coming across a trail sign with a spoke for fire lookout seven, and tell john, "hey, i found the sign for my tower, so i'm heading that way."

"good. that way's a bit more of a hike, but it's shorter, so you should be home in time for dinner." 

"perfect. can't wait to get back to my room temperature tea." you reply, with a trace of sarcasm that you're sure is only just noticeable.

john breathes a short chuckle, before his voice turns slightly more serious. "how's your back, anyway?"

"fucking hurts, but i'll get over it." you answer, and the moment silence that follows has you wishing you'd just said fine. it had slipped your mind how odd john was being about your fall, and though you want to find out why, you get the impression that questioning him about it wouldn't get you anywhere.

he clears his throat uncomfortably. "...sorry, again. it was my fault you fell."

you frown in concern when he apologises, again, and do your best to ease his mind. "don't worry about it, alright? i didn't even fall that far, i was already, like, halfway down."

he doesn't have to know that was a lie.

"still, it shouldn't've happened in the first place." he replies, still sounding rather pitiful despite your efforts.

"i'm being dramatic. it's really fine, john." you try to keep your words light, to convey that you really don't blame him, and he shouldn't either, but he simply hums in response.

"if you say so."

"well, y'know how you can make it up to me?" you let another smile creep into your voice when another idea comes to you.

"how's that?" he takes the bait, some form of amusement present rather than the cynicism from before.

"you can tell me some of your war stories," you can sense his hesitation through the radio, but you press further with a more lighthearted tone, "the cool shit, like how mission impossible is based on your life or whatever."

"well, i'm no tom cruise, but i was at the piccadilly bombin', back in twenty-nineteen." john replies, a hint of smugness behind his words that you don't even register through the shock that stops you in your tracks.

"holy shit, what?"

[vacayisland]

OHHH EM GEE!! I just saw your new post about you posting romantically about Poppy and Viva!! I wanted to ask if you could possible do a Poppy request and poppy and the reader are dating! Also could the reader be fem?

i was wondering if Poppy could just be clinging on the reader or just a scrapbooking date or just somewhere where they spend time together!

I love your writing so much and i get super dupes excited when you post new things I literally scream because your writing is literally so gorge and there’s not a lot of trolls x reader content! I just wanted to let you know that I just love your writing sm :)

@!; Scrapbooking my heart Poppy / Reader

"Summary"! Spoiled party plans lead to one of the best date-afternoons for the both of you. "Tags"! Fluff!! Also no gender is mentioned for the reader! <3 So read it as fem or masc or however you'll like.

@storydays @chamille-trash @valvalentine69

@!; It all started one bleak afternoon, when the clouds covered the sun from its gleeful parade; shining down upon Troll village no longer as a dreary atmosphere had taken upon the land. And many were being persuaded by the moody weather, becoming down casted in rainy chances and the shady afternoon that was meant to be bright. Not many would like to admit that they would let their mood to be so easily swayed, that their temper could be based on the peaking sun or the threatened clouds that stole away their sunshine. Not even Queen Poppy would like to admit this fact, despite the small frown that itched onto her lips the moment the sun clouded over their field. It eerily shrouded the plans for the party they were planning in a murky and unwelcoming way. Many commented about the shuddering tension; commenting how they thought it was going to be sunny that day, that there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky earlier. Many took a moment for themselves, glancing around at their fellow trolls, before they decided it would be a good stay-in-afternoon. “Hey, hey!” But Poppy wanted, no more like needed, to get these plans done! And she couldn’t do that without her friends, “Guys come on, it’s only a little cloudy. I’m sure it’ll clear right up!” Yet her words were soon followed by a frightening shock of thunder in the background, causing her to shrink a little into herself. But she tried to keep a bright smile on and tried to bounce back; if not for herself then for her friends, who probably needed some distraction after such well-timed (or maybe awfully timed) thunder. “Psh!” Poppy dramatically tried to wave off the fear, and the sinking feeling in her stomach. “I’m sure that was just a coincidence, you’ll see! That storm will pass in no time.”

The storm didn’t pass. In fact, Poppy wasn’t sure when she had seen so much rain! Now huddled in her pod, Poppy watched the rain with a nervous tick, thoughts flooded her mind as she questioned whether or not the party will need to be pushed back. It’s not like she hasn’t pushed back a party before- no wait, that’s exactly what this was! Poppy has never had to push back a party before and she’ll be damned if she would have to push back a party this time. And due to rain, of all things!

Rain, which has never stopped a Pop Trolls party before! Mostly because it never really rained in Pop village, due to their location and what not. They rarely got rain, or any sort of storm for that matter. Sure, they were surrounded by a forest, but that, in of itself, never posed that much of a threat: well, unless you didn’t count the bergen attack back before Poppy became a Queen, or all the dangerous creatures that lived inside the village, or Cloud Guy. But, never have those outside forces from the forest ever disrupted a Pop village party! And Poppy will make sure that this party was not to be pooped by some rain! “Yeah, you hear that rain! You won’t poop on this party.” Poppy shouted, pointing a finger to the weather outside; though it didn’t give much of a reaction and continued its own way. Poppy paused, staring at the raindrops before laughing nervously. “And I’m talking to rain… oh I’m talking to rain.” “If it makes you feel better… you were really convincing when you told off the rain.” A snickering voice sounded from behind Poppy, causing her to jump and yell. She didn’t remember inviting anyone over. Yet, when she whipped around, her guard was dropped instantly upon seeing you. While Poppy didn’t invite you over, you tended to just show up in her pod when she needed you the most. Likewise, she always tended to show up in your pop when you needed her. Branch always called it some sort of sixth sense you two had, and you could never tell if he said it sarcastically or literally due to his horrible choice in tone. But, either way, it was kind of true. You dropped the cupcakes you had brought onto Poppy’s table, walking over to her with a curious yet confused look, “So… why are we screaming at the rain?” “Ha! You know…?” Poppy’s lips etched with a nervous smile, fiddling with her fingers as she glanced outside the window. She didn’t mean for anyone to hear her yell at the rain. “It’s pooping your party, huh?” Poppy nodded at your correct guess, her grin only growing as she knew you would understand her outlandish outbreak. You stood there, staring out at the rain for a solid moment. Poppy glanced over at you, cocking up a curious eyebrow, as she tried to guess what you were thinking about… or maybe, what you were about to do. Whatever she was thinking, it wasn’t you joining in her silliness! “Hey rain, stop pooping my girlfriend’s party! She worked really hard on it and you are only ruining it for everyone!”

“Yeah! Go away and come again another day!” Poppy joined you with a bounce in her step, grinning from ear to ear with playfully frowned eyebrows. You both were already on the brink of laughter, but tried to keep yourselves composed. “Yeah! Haven’t you heard the rhyme? Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!” You stuck your hands outside Poppy’s window and tried to shoo the rain away. Though your hand waving only spread the rain that drenched them to flicks elsewhere. And despite your shared attempts, the rain didn’t seem to be budging or going away to come again another day. You and Poppy watched the rain for a moment, seeming convinced that your attempts would drive away the rain. Or, maybe you both knew you were being silly! Well, Poppy knew that more than you as she burst out into laughter after you muttered, almost too sincere, “Huh… I actually thought that would work.”

@!; After your failed attempts at trying to shoo away the rain didn’t work, and Poppy had calmed down from her hysterical laughter, you both found yourselves sitting on the floor of her pod. You had brought over the cupcakes from her table, having them safely between your legs, while Poppy scrounged around for her scrapbooking materials. She had decided if she couldn’t physically plan the party outside, due to the rain, she would just plan it inside with a scrap book! And talk to you all about her plans as you were here and ready to listen. “So! Tomorrow’s party is going to be so huge. Like, almost bergen-catching level huge.” Poppy snickered as she grabbed her basket of materials and books and scraps, walking over to where you sat on the floor. She joined you, plopping down right beside you, and began to unpack her basket at once with a feverous delight. And while you were half-way through a cupcake, you still answered your girlfriend, “Oh, bergen-catching level huge, huh?” “Yes!” Poppy exclaimed instantly, not wasting a beat. “It’s to celebrate our second week of knowing there’s more Trolls out there than just us! So I was thinking that we could try and have Trolls from different villages come and join us and allow them to play their music so everyone can be in harmony again like they were two weeks ago. It’ll unite everyone just like how everything had been and it’ll be amazing and spectacular and- and even Branch will come!” You couldn’t help but smile as Poppy tried to contain her excitement, yet she was basically bouncing off the walls; Figuratively, not literally. As she rushed out her thoughts to you, laying out her plans in great detail, she scrapbook her whole plan. It was oddly fascinating and calming to watch Poppy scrapbook, especially when you could eat multiple cupcakes while doing so. She just always put her whole heart into the activity, she always put her whole heart into everything, and it made it all so enjoyable. Even if her plans were a little unrealistic, you decided to let her enjoy her little fantasy plans for now; Maybe you’ll break it to her later, get her to see that it would be a little more difficult than she’s thinking, but if she truly believed in it she should fight for it. Or, maybe, Branch will break it to her first and you might have to throw hands with the gray, bunker-dewling hobbit. Even if he’s right. Hours flew by light minutes. You were on your fifth cupcake, this one being double chocolate. Poppy was cutting out the little details on her scrapbook design. You both sat there in a lovely silence that was being filled with music from Poppy’s record player, old vinyls you had found and decided to pop onto play with Poppy’s agreement. And you were sure you couldn’t hear the rain sputtering against the windows anymore, yet you didn’t want to tell Poppy just yet. Knowing her, she would rush off, dragging you with her, to go plan the party outside her scrapbook. Yet, you wanted to be a little selfish and keep her with you for a little longer. A little longer with Poppy leaning against you. A little longer of the record player singing out the vinyl tunes. A little while longer of peace. A little while longer of here and now.

.ᐟ this work is published and owned by @vacayisland. please do not plagiarize, copy, or steal this work; like, reblogs, and saves are appreciated :D

[sakumasmut]

Enstars x Reader NSFW Month Day 10

Himeru x Bunny!Fem!Reader

late again, but I promise it’s worth it. Lily when you see this, hope you enjoy (and maybe be inspired to write a continuation wink nudge)

tags/warnings: breeding, vaginal sex, mating cycles

ao3

The coming of spring meant several things. Sunny days, floral breezes, gardens and parks full of color, and an uptick in sneezing from the unfortunate souls with pollen allergies (poor Koga was wearing a mask every time you saw him). For those with more primal instincts, the warmer weather meant it was the start of mating season. For the bunnies in Ensemble Square, it was time to either avoid contact with everyone and quarantine themselves, or get busy until all their cravings were satisfied.

You assumed heats were a necessary evolutionary trait thousands of years ago, but in the present day when your main source of stress was working an office job in a capitalist economy, your part-rabbit body throwing a hissy fit over not having a mate just made things even more stressful. The current situation you were in was a prime example of what problems the mating season could bring to the table, kneeling in front of a newer producer and comfortingly stroking their arm as they quivered in their seat.

“Stay here until the taxi arrives.” You spoke calmly to them. They were shaking and flushed red, not having expected to go into heat in the middle of work. “Once you get home, stay there until all the symptoms go away. Don’t worry about work; I’ll take care of it, m’kay?”

“Thank you, senpai.” They quietly sobbed, squeezing and rubbing their long ears to soothe themselves.

They were extremely lucky you happened to notice them hunched over in the hall and escorted them to a safe room before their vulnerable position attracted the wrong type of person. Mating season clouded people’s senses, you knew that too well. Married hybrids usually mated during March, to get it out of the way, but for single people, it was mostly just a waiting game until your body decided it craved a mate. You hadn’t gotten your heat yet, but you felt prepared to lock yourself in a room and call a taxi the moment you felt any sort of onset, to avoid ending up in the exact situation you were helping your coworker out of. For now though, you felt as fresh and (relatively) not horny as ever, and so said goodbye to the younger producer once their lift had arrived, escorting them to the car before rushing off to the meeting you were already late for.

“Sorry I’m late!” You quickly spoke as soon as you pushed the door open, the only person in the room looking up from the sound of your voice.

“Don’t worry, Himeru got your message.” The idol replied cooly, demeanor as nonchalant as ever. “The emergency situation you were dealing with, is it alright now?”

“Yes, yes, it’s all good.”

You were glad Himeru was an understanding person. It was a quality you liked about him, among other things. Maybe you were biased since you had worked with him for a few months on his solo jobs, but he always treated you kindly. You did notice he was harsher with his rowdy unit mates, but it only made you giggle more than anything, seeing him as the sort of person who gave as much respect as he received.

“If it’s not rude for Himeru to ask, what was it you were preoccupied with?”

“Ah, just some rabbit related stuff. You know how spring is for us.”

He frowned and knit his brows together as he looked you up and down.

“Producer, you aren’t feeling…ill, are you?” Himeru asked, “Himeru wouldn’t want you to be in a public place if you’re experiencing such symptoms.”

You flushed, realizing his misunderstanding. “No, ah, it’s not me! I was helping a younger rabbit who went into heat!” Being all red in the face and running into the room covered in sweat didn’t help with your case, as you could tell from his unchanging expression.

“Trust me, I would not be anywhere near here if my heat started! It usually starts pretty late in the spring, so I’m safe for a while.”

He nodded, expression relaxing at your assurances.

“It would certainly pose a large problem if it did. Though, if you ever find yourself in an unpleasant situation like that, Himeru would be glad to assist you in any way possible.”

“Huh?” You blinked at his words. What did he mean by that? Surely he meant that you could rely on him during emergencies, right?

“Now, shall we talk about your latest proposal?”

“Ah, yes!” You smacked yourself on the cheeks to rid yourself of those thoughts. “Here, I have the paperwork. Look over it and tell me what you think!”

xxx

You certainly weren’t lying when you said your heats came rather late into the season. People always complained about getting them early in March, but at least when they got them, afterwards they could go about their lives freely with no worries about getting sucker punched by their bodies. For you, spending a good two months worrying about the possibility that it’d come earlier was always a source of stress you had to push in the back of your mind, until finally it did come on a sunny May morning.

You woke up in a sweat, despite having taken a shower the previous night, and everything felt warm, way too warm. Funnily enough, you were meant to meet up with Himeru that afternoon, just as you did last month when you dealt with your coworker going into their own heat. You remembered what he had said about helping you if you ever found yourself in this situation, and thinking about the idol’s words made your horny mess of a brain wander to very obscene thoughts, which you had to smack yourself on the head to rid yourself of. No! You weren’t thinking clearly! You did struggle to understand what he meant, until you considered he likely referred to helping you with calling out of work and telling your clients you’d be unavailable. Having someone do all that for you rather than struggle with forming coherent sentences through a slog of calls sounded great right about now, and so you dialed him up once you managed to grab your phone. He picked up immediately after the first beep.

“Good morning, producer. Do you need Himeru for something?”

Just the sound of his alluring voice was making your body heat up. Stupid horny brain.

“Yeah, sorry this is sudden, but I need help with my heat.” You muttered, before realizing how it sounded without context and backtracking, “I meant—I need help with work, because I’m in heat! I need to tell my clients that I’ll have to reschedule, and you said that you could help, right?”

There was silence on the other end, and for a second you worried that maybe you had offended him somehow, before he responded with an “Understood, Himeru will inform everyone he needs to.”

You thanked him gratefully, and recited a list of people for him to message or call about your situation. That was a big weight off your shoulders, and now you could sink into bed and deal with your heat…all alone…

“Producer, can Himeru help in any other way? This time of year must be quite exhausting for your kind.”

Indecent thoughts of him came flooding back, of scenarios where Himeru could help you in ways your body needed the most…

“Perhaps you’d like him to bring you food and other supplies?”

“T-That’d be great, thanks.”

You hung up after giving him your address, and flopped yourself back onto the sheets, skin feeling sweaty and mind replaying how his voice sounded against your ear, wanting to hear it again after only a few seconds. The professional in you was already regretting saying yes to his offer, asking what kind of producer would invite an idol to their house in the middle of their heat, but the other part of you who saw him as a friend, perhaps a bit more, did really want the company. It would still be a while before he got here though, especially since he promised to do some of your work for you, and you wondered if your impatient body could even last until then.

A wave of desire washed over you, making you shudder. You tugged one of your long ears over your face, rubbing circles soothingly on the pink insides as your legs kicked your blanket off the bed. Your body was way too hot, yet no amount of ice would cool it off, only another person’s own heat enveloping your own would make it go away. You began to grind your hips against your pillow, whining into it, trying to pretend it was another person’s body—specifically a certain blue-haired idol. If you shut your eyes, maybe you could pretend he was already here in your house, comforting you with his presence.

You wondered how it would feel grinding against his thigh, imagining his yellow eyes watching you with immense interest. Yes, you could envision it so well in the blank space of your hormone filled brain. His hands would rest on your hips, holding you in place so you couldn’t climb off as you bucked against his leg. He’d see the wet mess pooling from your crotch area, dripping onto his pants, but rather than chastise he’d praise you, encouraging you to keep humping his leg until you came all over him.

You whined to yourself, the friction between your thighs and the pillow only making you feel a dull ache. You kept trying to chase an orgasm, anything to make your tensed up body feel better, but with only air for your cunt to clench around, you couldn’t bring yourself to. The buzz of the doorbell snapped you out of your daydream. How many minutes had passed? Were you so immersed in the scenario in your head that time had flown without you realizing, or was Himeru just that fast in getting to you? Your legs were shaky as you stood up, each step making your body wobble forward. You doubted you’d be able to leave the bed if you fell back onto it. You opened the door, and as expected Himeru was there, holding a plastic grocery bag.

“Good morning, producer.” His eyes scanned your form, and you did your best to stand upright without shaking. “Are you feeling alright?”

“I-I’m fine. Come on in.”

You tried to look composed as he entered, trying to keep your ears upright and hoping that he couldn’t sense the pheromones your body was releasing. If he could, he didn’t give any indication, expression as blank as ever while he placed the bag on your kitchen counter.

“Himeru admits, he doesn’t know much about your situation. But he tried to get things that could help.”

He took out some snacks and drinks, ones that you immediately recognized as your go-tos in the break area of the ES building. You smiled softly, touched that he would remember your preferred foods.

“Thank you. This means a lot.”

“It’s not a problem. Is there anything else Himeru can do for you while he’s here?”

He kept asking that same question, if he could do anything for you, and the short answer was that he could. But you were too scared to make the first move, in case he actually wasn’t interested in going further than your relationship as an idol and producer. Surely he’d cut ties with you if he didn’t mean it that way, and not seeing him again would hurt more than the rejection. Your body heated up again, as if begging you to voice your desires. You had to bite your lip to stop yourself from audibly whimpering, something Himeru noticed.

“You look quite feverish, perhaps you should go back to your bed to rest?”

“Y-Yeah, maybe I should. Let me just put these away first…”

You took a step towards the counter to take some of the food away, but immediately stumbled. You braced yourself for the impact, but Himeru’s hands moved quickly to catch you. One hand grabbed your shoulder while the other circled around your stomach, pulling you up against his chest. A moan couldn’t help but come out of you at the warmth of his touch, cutting through the sexual tension like a knife. You froze up when you realized what you did, the silence following making you almost certain he heard it.

“S-Sorry, I’m just so…” You stammered, trying to come up with excuses. “out of it.”

His hands were still on you, the mere contact making you want to collapse into his chest. You really didn’t want him to let go, you wanted to imagine his arms wrapped around you forever, so you wondered when you were going to be hit with reality and have his arms release their hold, expecting him to excuse himself and leave you to deal with your heat alone again. Except, they didn’t. They stayed on your body, and you swore he even pulled you closer.

“Meru?”

“…Forgive Himeru for being unprofessional, but I can’t bear to leave you in this state.”

You looked up at him in surprise, only now noticing how hungry his gaze was as his eye bore directly into you. He moved the arm that was around your waist underneath your legs to scoop you up into a bridal carry. All the snacks went ignored as he brought you into your bedroom, having decided to have a taste of something else. You squealed as he dropped you onto the mattress. You would be embarrassed by how messy your bed was if your heart wasn’t beating out of your chest from the sight of Himeru leaning over you, face so close to yours you could hear his breathing. You truly felt like prey, his prey.

“If you want me to leave, tell me so now.”

His voice was husky, looking at you with a deadly serious expression that made shivers run down your spine. His presence was intoxicating, you couldn’t let him leave now. You needed him here, with you, to satisfy you. You kept your lips shut as you stared straight at him, and your arms uncrossed themselves from above your chest to rest on either side of your body.

“Stay. Please.”

His expression softened at your resolution, and he reached a hand out to stroke your long ears gently, gliding his fingers upwards along the fur. You whimpered, thighs squeezing together. Himeru noticed, and gently placed a hand on one knee to pry your legs apart. A wet spot on your crotch area gave away your arousal, and he hummed.

“Poor girl. May I take these off?”

You nodded, and he carefully pulled your pajama bottoms off, exposing your soaked pussy. He pressed a finger against one of your swollen lips, already glistening with your juices. You trembled as he brought it to his mouth, making eye contact with you as he licked it clean.

“So wet already…your body must not want to waste any time.”

He didn’t either, as his gaze momentarily left your body to focus on the buttons of his pants. Seeing the tent that had formed in the short time it took to bring you here filled you with a sense of satisfaction, eased that he was enjoying this as much as you were. Once you saw his erection pop out from his boxers, your body seemed to clench even tighter in anticipation, unable to resist the idea of having it stuffed inside you. Your instincts told you to get onto all fours, knees spread wide to present yourself to your mate, and Himeru cooed at your eagerness.

“Good girl. Such a good bunny for me.”

His words went straight to your cunt, feeling it throb even before his dick was anywhere near it. Being reduced to the bunny in heat you were, his bunny, just felt right. You weren’t a producer right now, you were a helpless rabbit that was begging to be bred. He parted your folds with two fingers, coating them with your slick and rubbing it on his length, lubing it up as you squirmed impatiently, your tail’s movements giving away your excitement.

“Tell me what you want.”

“I-I…”

Even now, when you were so close to what your body craved, your lips refused to move. He leaned in close to your ear, close enough that you felt them brush against it when he spoke.

“Do you want me to mount you?”

Fuck.

You whined, babbling affirmative noises as he chuckled at how his words left you quivering in anticipation, lifting your rear high into the air to ask him to take you already. The warm feeling of something pressing against your entrance followed. He pushed himself in slowly, much too easily with how wet you were. Every nerve in your body was focused on the feeling of his length sinking completely into your wet cunt, all the way to the hilt, before slipping back out. Even in your wildest wet dreams you never thought he would be making you feel so full, so complete.

The noises you made were all quiet, either cut short by them catching in your throat or muffled by the pillow you were burying your face into. If he were going any faster, surely the squelch between your union would make a wonderful sound, but at his current pace the only sound in the room was his breathing and your muffled whining.

Himeru’s hands kept your hips steady as he pushed in and out of you, each thrust making the butterflies in your stomach flutter. Being filled by him just felt so right. This was what you were craving, cock stuffed inside you, body weight pressed down to make sure you couldn’t escape. Yet despite how your body trembled, how your legs were spread so wide for him, Himeru was still taking it slow, trying to make sure he wasn’t pushing you too much. It was still relieving your desire, but the slow jolts of pleasure weren’t enough, you needed something more primal to satiate yourself.

“What’s wrong?” He hummed, rocking his hips back and forth, “Is Himeru’s little bunny still needy?”

“Hah~ Meru…” You whined. “Faster, please, I want to feel you deep inside me~”

Who was he to deny you when you sounded so desperate underneath him? He pulled his cock out almost entirely before sinking balls deep inside you, making sure to do it harshly enough that your toes curled when he did. A louder whine escaped you, and it found itself joined by more as he slammed himself into you over and over again. Your short tail brushed against the skin of his stomach, flicking back and forth with each thrust. He reached out to take it in his hand, and you mewled when he lifted it up.

“So you’re sensitive here.” He hummed, gently stroking the white under-fur with his thumb.

“A-Ah, w-wait, mmh~”

Your eyes nearly rolled back in your head, knees wanting to give in from his touch, but he made you keep your hips upright, your back falling to a downwards slant as your arms gave in. You cried out when the first orgasm of your heat finally came, and through it all he just kept fucking you into the mattress, his own grunts of effort filling the air as he focused on the feeling of your warm walls trying to milk his cock.

“Bunny, you’re so tight.” He grunted. “You’re going to make me finish, too.”

“Inside, do it inside!” You whined, pushing your hips back towards him. Being in heat meant you were the most fertile you could’ve ever been; if he came inside you, surely it’d end with carrying his litter. But instead of being terrified of the idea, in the haze of your heat you wanted nothing more than for him to fill you up with his kids, as many as he wanted. He seemed to hesitate, noticeably slowing down.

“I-Himeru shouldn’t do that.”

“Hah, Meru, please!” There were nearly tears in your eyes as you turned to look back at him, pleading. “Breed me, knock me up, just give me everything!”

Your voice was so desperate, your body so eager to take his seed, to become his breeding bunny…he couldn’t help himself, his movements becoming more erratic as he growled out your name. He didn’t seem like he was going to pull out anymore, that was sure.

You mewled as his cock continuously pressed against the entrance to your womb, as if trying to coax it to open a bit further for the oncoming delivery. You chanted his name, the only noise reaching your ears your pitiful “Meru”s until he finally let out a loud groan, eyes shutting tight as he came inside you. The warmth flooding into you made your body and brain equally fuzzy, leaving you unable to think as you both came down from your highs.

“Did that satisfy you, bunny?” Himeru murmured against your ear, lips brushing over them and almost kissing them. He was still inside you, and you were sure he could feel how you clenched tightly around his cock at his words, wanting to feel it grow hard again.

“My my, seems like it didn’t.” He tisked, lifting your hips up high and forcing your shaky knees to support the weight of his hips pressed flush against your ass with a half-hearted whine. “You’re making me work overtime, producer. So all I ask is that you reward Himeru appropriately.”

If the reward he wanted was to make you swell with kids, well, it was practically already fulfilled. After all, he wasn’t going to leave his bunny alone after only one load, was he?

[gwiyeounsonyeon]

Growing Pains CH2 (MWC Day 8!)

Pairing: RE2 Leon Kennedy x Male(Intended) Reader Summary: College AU/Meet-cute(?) The cute guy that Claire hangs out with finally works up the courage to talk to you. Words: 1,662/200 Warnings: a few curse words but that's to be expected. Notes: Leon is super shy and awkward, I haven't read through it but when I was writing the dialogue and the text between it felt pretty chunky so if anyone has notes about that please let me know, I'm experimenting a little with the paragraphs, let me know if you liked the smaller ones better.

Navigation | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

☁︎⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

Friday felt like it would never end, like you’d never be able to catch a break. You had to feel grateful, though, it hadn’t rained yet and your weather app told you it would be sunny all day. The extreme difference in the weather kept you reeling, back home the temperature and weather were usually consistent with the month, but after moving closer to school you'd noticed that the weather was a lot more sporadic here; yesterday it had been freezing and pouring for the majority of the day, getting as low as 10 °C with a warning for hail. Today was the complete opposite, the temperature had been between 26 and 32 °C with absolutely no clouds in sight. The extreme (and unwarranted) differences in the weather had left you staggering to catch up, you’d woken up that morning absolutely drenched in sweat and blinded by the sun. Having set your thermostat to keep up with the freezing temperatures outside and the poor insulation of your cheap apartment, since it had been cloudy all week you never bothered with your curtains or blinds but clearly that was a mistake. 

You probably shouldn't say you hated Chicago, it was nice sometimes and the students here were pretty respectful. You could count on one hand all of the times you’ve actually had a bad customer experience and all of them centered around finals or exams. You look up as the bell dings and a customer enters, he’s huge, completely dwarfing you in size. As soon as he steps up to the counter you recognize him, his pale skin, and the weird markings on his face. You’ve heard Claire complaining about him time and time again, he was apparently so strict that no one in his classes has ever passed. 

You highly doubted that no one’s ever passed but since she never gave you his name, and only referred to him as the Evil Tyrant of the West Wing, you could never fact-check her. Evil tyrant or not, you still had a job to do and money to make so, you put on your best smile and greeted him politely. He orders a black coffee and a triple shot of expresso, you’re a little intimidated by his voice, and maybe his order but you know plenty of guys with his stature and intimidating aura who are actually sweethearts. The order is simple, youve made it so many times for the poor professors who used to come by in the dead of night, it's pure muscle memory at this point. Getting his order made and totaled up on the register takes little to no thought, he waits like he's got better things to do, and before you can tell him he tosses the exact total onto the counter, paying without thanking (or tipping) you. 

He scoops up his two drinks before marching out of the shop. His footsteps are loud and heavy, clunky boots dropping down hard onto the linoleum like you used to do as a pubescent 16-year-old throwing a tantrum, you think about how every time you did that your mom would call you disrespectful and she’d take away your phone. At that thought small smile forms on your face, you can't help but feel a little amused at the image of your tiny, 5’4 mother disciplining a man about as tall and wide as a skyscraper. “What an ass.” You huff and glance back down at the tip jar, it was a measly four bucks and some change, mostly quarters. You’ve had worse tips, at least this could buy you a water and maybe some peanuts or sunflower seeds if you chose right. 

You lean against the counter and cast a glance out of the big windows at the front, the guy Claire eats with is out there looking like a terrified puppy, he’s gripping the handles of his bike tightly as the tyrant guy chews into him for something you can only imagine. You watch as the tyrant storms off, pretty dramatically, Claire's friend puts up his bike and locks it to the pole before coming inside, he flinches when he sees you watching and shakily pulls off his (stupid-looking) helmet. “You- uh… Did you see all that?” His voice shakes slightly and he fidgets with the helmet nervously “Maybe.” You shrug wanting to cut the guy some slack. “Was it something you wanted me to see?” He shakes his head and you go back to the register, “Then I guess I didn't see anything.” He visibly relaxes but his steps toward the counter are a little shaky, you’re already tapping his order into the register by the time he gets up to the counter. “I didn't even order yet…” He sounds a little flustered and you look up to see that his cheeks have gone pink. “You get the same thing every time.” You counter, tapping the green total button on the register, “What if I wanted something different.” His voice evens out like he's getting more comfortable. “Did you?” - “No.” You chuckle at the absurdity and shake your head. 

“2.95 big guy.” There's a pause and you look up expectantly, he's looking at you star-struck but as soon as you make eye contact he fumbles for his wallet, dropping his helmet in the process. “Um- im so sorry…” He apologizes quickly, handing you a five and bending to pick up his helmet. “S’fine.” you pause to put his cash into the register and pull out his change. “Two-oh-five is your change.” You hand it back only for him to drop it into your tip jar, he smiles and takes his cookie when you hand it to him. “Is- uh. I mean- is Claire not here today?” He fumbles a little, tearing off pieces of his cookie. 

You shake your head “Nah, not yet. Summer’s always slow.” He nods along with you, it's obvious he knows Claire isn't here. You look over at the windows again and check your watch, it's just about closing time. “Why is that?” He breaks the silence as you log out of the register, you look up at him a little caught off guard, “Hm? Why what?” His cheeks go pink and he fumbles for words- “Um… I mean- uh. Why is summer always slow?” You nod, understanding what he meant, and go back to the register with a shrug, “Luis says it’s ‘cause of the heat, no one wants hot drinks.” He nods slightly and finishes off his cookie, crumpling up the napkin as he lingers. It's not hard to see that he wants to keep talking to you and you almost feel bad for him, you finish logging off and nod in the direction of the trash can. “Bet you a free drink you can't get that into the trash from here.” You know you shouldn't be handing out drinks but he's too cute and it's the first thing that pops into your head. 

He visibly lights up, his eyes get wider and his back straightens “Alright.” He looks back at the trash can by the door, taking his attention off of you. You can't help but admire him while he lines up his shot, he's got a cute side profile, he's pretty tall, and his hair looks nice and soft. He raises the napkin over his head and tosses it in, you tear your eyes away from the muscle in his arms to see the balled-up napkin bounce off the window and into the trash. He looks back at you with a shit-eating grin on his face, you shrug and smile back while turning to grab a cup. “I was on the basketball team in high school.” He says sounding more confident than he had earlier, you snort as he reveals this crucial information after he wins your little game. 

“Guess I set myself up then, huh?” You get a cup and turn back to him, “Whatchu want?” He looks proud of himself, his shoulders relaxed and held back confidently. You can't help but think he looks handsome when he’s confident like this, the worry lines on his face disappear, his brows unfurrow, and he actually looks his age. “What if…” He trails off, his demeanor turning anxious again. He swallows hard, his adam’s apple bobbing with the effort, “uh- w- what if… I got your number, instead of a drink?” A smile forces its way onto your face, he looks so nervous he might give himself an aneurysm. You huff playfully, unable to resist, this has to be the highlight of your week. 

You turn away from him to brew an iced coffee, It might be a little mean for you to draw this out, to make him worry more. “You want milk and sugar?” But you’ve always struggled with self-control. There's a long pause, before- “Ye… um yes please.” His voice is small and there's a slight shake if you listen close enough. You feel a little bad for doing this but you continue, you never pussy out. You finish brewing his coffee and in a smooth, well-practiced motion, you slap a sticker on the side and mark it with your name and number, putting a little x underneath. 

You hand it to him and without giving him time to think or breathe you herd him out of the shop. “Gotta close, call me later.” You shut and lock the door as he stands in front of it bewildered, his brain takes a while to catch up and you see him look down at the coffee in his hand and start to turn around but you’re faster; turning off the open sign and closing the blinds with a speed that you should be using for more important things, like getting dressed when you’re late to class, or finishing an essay that's about to be overdue, not being mysterious to the cute guy who still hasn't given you his name.

☁︎⋆⁺₊⋆ ☀︎ ⋆⁺₊⋆

A/N: it's getting easier and easier to write already, it didn't take half as long as yesterday's did to get 1,000 words. It feels so much good to actually feel happy writing. I can't help but feel worried it's not going to last forever with my fluctuating mental health but I've been looking up a few books to help improve my writing, grammar, flow, and punctuation and I've been seeing a lot of these writers saying that it's okay for you to be worried about that and to just push through.

[leviscolwill]

soleil pluvieux

pairing: rúben dias x reader

summary: you never thought you'd be grateful for manchester's shitty weather, but that was before you met rúben at your usual bus stop [wc: ~680]

contents: strangers to ??? (🤭), just fluffy stuff

note: i should be writing the 16839 wips i've started but this idea was too irresistible not to write... also i'm aware ruben would not take the bus but he's doing it for the plot 🙄

now playing: soleil pluvieux by yvnnis (novae)

your friends would describe you as a control freak, but it wasn't totally true. you just liked to have your life together and fully organised.

but one of the very few things you couldn't control in your life was the weather. for example, you couldn't predict that this sunny day would be darkened by rainy clouds. because that was the weatherman's job, something he couldn't do properly, it seemed. so here you were, in your pretty sundress, getting rained on, on what was supposed to be a perfectly sunny day.

you mentally cursed the weatherman as you arrived at your bus stop, noticing your next bus to be in 12 minutes. enough time to get completely soaked by the time you get home, you thought.

you sensed someone stilling next to you, and the rain suddenly stops. you look up, only to meet eyes with the stranger. a tall man, with brunette hair and charming brown eyes, sharing half of his umbrella with you.

"i thought you might appreciate a break from the rain." he told you looking deep into your eyes.

for some reason, you were taken aback by his voice and his accent. you weren't one to lose your bearings often, but something about him made you stumble on your words.

"you would be right... i guess. i mean you would be right about that, getting rained on is never nice so..." it felt like the words were tripping out of your mouth and lost all their meanings.

the stranger chuckled, a beautiful sound, one you would want to listen to forever you thought.

"i'm rúben, and you are..?"

you gave him your name in something that resembled a whisper, but somehow rúben understood you, saying your name back, mostly to himself.

"pretty name." you felt your cheeks heat up at his comment.

"do you usually carry an umbrella everywhere you go ?" you were taken aback by his flirty manners and the way his eyes looked so intently into yours, tracing their way to your lips once in a while. so you tried to put him on the spot as well.

but rúben simply laughed, a loud and hearty laugh that surprised you more than your question surprised him.

"it's manchester, you should always have your umbrella ready."

he was right, manchester's weather was unpredictable. and you carried your umbrella with you whenever you felt the day was about to turn rainy, but today was supposed to be a sunny day, in your mind at least.

"i suppose you're right..." you grumbled, if there was one thing you hated, aside from untrustworthy weathermen, it was being wrong.

"my bus should be here soon... can i give you my phone number ?"

once again, you were confused by the brunette. usually, people would ask for your number, not the other way. this time, rúben put you out of your misery and explained himself.

"in case you need someone to share their umbrella with you one day, and maybe we could get a coffee or whatever you like really."

for the first time since rúben spoke to you, he seemed a little flustered. his cheeks were reddening by the second and his eyes left yours to look at his shoes.

you handed him your phone with a smile as he quickly wrote his name and number in your contacts as he saw his bus coming.

he gave you a quick smile, handing back your phone. he got on the bus and that's when you realised he also gave you his umbrella.

when you looked over at him in surprise, you were met by his pretty smile and a cute wave.

you had a smile glued to your face on your way home thinking about today's funny and unexpected encounter.

once you were finally home you snapped a quick photo of the umbrella and sent it to rúben with a text.

i guess i'm the one who has to share the umbrella now.

[eliashirsch]

How About A Picnic?

He’s like this often. Mostly when he doesn’t get what he wants, like: when the weather isn’t a perfect ninety degrees sunny without a cloud; when his bike creates that rattling noise during that time of the month again; when his toast isn’t crispy all the way to the edges; when he wakes up and Ice isn’t there with him.

Living with Maverick means seeing him pout every ten minutes. Like what he’s doing now. Bottom lip jutting out, eyes wide and slightly teary, shoulders defeated. The man is fifty-nine years old. 

It’s all for show, of course. If Maverick Mitchell is anything but, it’s easily offended. His heart is locked away in solid steel and guarded with spiked iron. He’s just looking for a reaction. Which Ice, for all of his reputation, can’t help but react anyway.

“What’s wrong?” Ice asks, coaxing Maverick to turn around and face him.

Maverick’s not giving in easily. His back’s turned, hands on his hips like a sulking toddler who’s been refused a second cookie. “Aren’t you the so-called ‘Maverick Whisperer’? Can’t you tell?”

“I’m not a mind reader,” Ice says for the hundredth time. “C’mon. Tell me. Is it the kids? Are they teasing you again?”

“No,” Maverick hisses and dodges Ice. “Go away. I hate you.”

No, you don’t. Ice resists saying it in fear of Maverick shutting him out even more. When he’s in a fussy mood, Maverick can’t handle too much ribbing. 

“I’m sorry,” he says instead. “Is it something I did? Did I forget an anniversary?”

“You’re a shitty husband if you have to ask that.”

“Well, better late than never.”

“Hmph.” Maverick scowls and pouts even more. 

Ice considers him, then gets an idea. Maverick narrows his eyes at him as if he can see the lightbulb on top of his head. 

He takes Maverick’s arms and yanks so they’re flush chest to chest, trapping his arms underneath so Maverick can’t escape. 

Ice drops a kiss on Maverick’s nose. “Tell me.” Another to his right eyebrow. “C’mon.” To the right eyebrow. “Tell me. You know you want to.” To the high of his cheekbone. “Tell me.” To his forehead, lips, jaw, neck, ears. Then all over again.

Maverick’s tense shoulders drop little by little, and by the twentieth kiss, he’s giggling and squirming, trying to get away from Ice’s wet lips. 

“Stop!” Maverick lets out.

“Only if you tell me.”

“Fine, you asshole!” Maverick glares, fierce as a kitten. “I wanted to go on a picnic but it’s going to rain later today.”

Ice can’t help but throw his head back and laugh. Oh, Mav. “Is that it?”

Maverick flushes. “I knew you’d laugh.” He slaps Ice’s chest, though the sting of it is chased away by a gentle rub. 

“I’m sorry,” Ice says through chuckles. “It’s just—you’re so goddamn cute, you know?”

“I’m not cute!” Maverick protests cutely. 

“You are.” Ice smiles. “The cutest.”

Maverick’s pout appears again, Ice kisses it away. 

“We can just go on that picnic now,” Ice suggests.

“Now? But it’s eleven in the afternoon.”

“So?”

“So? The sun’s way too high for that!”

Ice shrugs. “So what? You want to go, right?”

Maverick stares at him in quiet amazement, probably thinking about how his usually fussy boyfriend is suggesting to go on a picnic with the sun at its peak. Probably wondering what happened to him.

Love. Love happened to him. Ice will do anything for Maverick if he asks.

“Alright,” Maverick says. “But you’re making the sandwiches.”

“Sandwiches?”

“It’s the tradition! And you’re—better at cooking than I am,” Maverick struggles to say those last few words. 

Ice smirks. “You could just slap on some peanut butter and jelly and call it a day.”

“A perfect sandwich requires ham, a sunny-side-up egg, cheese, and slightly burnt toast!”

“Fine, fine.” Ice rolls his eyes like making a sandwich for his husband is that much of a burden. “I’ll get to cooking.”

“Atta boy.” Maverick smirks, and slaps Ice’s butt. 

[toadinthechest]

WARNING! LONG POST WITH LOTS OF DRAWINGS!

First thing first! Some context:

Last year I've been introduced to Epic the musical which reignited my childhood obsession with greek mythology. Since then a lot of my themed drawings have been piled up. I don't think I will draw anything related anytime soon due to some "in real life stuff". So I decided to post most of them here dividing in two.

And this is the first post, which mostly contains drawings with Iris!

Why Iris? Let's just say I have never heard of her before, but after reading the Illiad I LOVED the idea of two Olympic messengers who counterpart each other.

As you can see in this take on their designs I wanted to give Hermes rather dusty and faded color scheme, while Iris is the burst of colors! However *headcanon!* their character is completely opposite to their appearance. So while Hermes is very lively, energetic, outgoing and chaotic, Iris on the other hand is collected and composed, calm, kinda a withdraw person (brooding even over something *cough* Titanomachy *cough*).

Speaking of the Illiad, while reading I've noticed that Homer used an interesting adjective to describe a brunete person: violet haired. So here's random portrait of young Zeus:

But let's get back to Iris. Her origins are also very interesting. I wouldn't ever guessed that she's rather sea goddess than anything! You see, her parents are Thaumas (sea god who personified the wonders of the sea) and Elektra (cloud-nymph of the amber-trim), and grand parents accordingly: Pontos, Okeanos and Tethys.

Btw I already talked how different scanners affect your drawing. It took me several days to convert next two pieces into digital format... Because I literally needed the SUN to do that. Why? Because the first scanner "ate" the colors from drawings and i couldn't restore them. And the second one made them incorrigibly dark. So I waited days for sunny weather and make a photo with phone. I have no idea what am I going to do in winter. But I hope I will come up with something!

I'd like to tell more about these two drawings. On the first one I pictured several celestial gods: Hemera, Helios, Selene and Eos. Looking at them now I realize I actually want to change Selene's design (it's just waaay too simple) and maybe I'd like to make Eos a little bit chubby or curvy. By now you must have already realize that Helios's design is basically humanization of sun in sunglasses (I know it doesn't really fit his character in myths, I just thought it would be more funny and interesting). As for Hemera... I will explain hers and few other gods designs in second post.

The second picture is... Well... Iris and her twin sister Arke the traitor. Look now... I know that there is only one literary source where this character is mentioned, which dates back to the 1st-2nd century AD. So I'm not entirely sure that it can be considered part of ancient Greek mythology. Basically, I just like the idea of ​​such character and how her existing would affect other characters.

Anyway. Iris is also a sister to harpies! (I will show their designs in next post) So I was thinking what Iris would look like if she herself were one?

Congratulations! You made it till the end of the post! Here's some scribbles of Olympic messengers:

[xxlady-lunaxx]

Sanemi hated sunny days. Everyone was always in good moods, happily going about their daily lives like idiots. Their irritatingly lively chatter and the intoxicating scent of nectar filling the air. How could they be so ignorant? The weather was only deceiving. The forecast of sun hadn’t prevented his whole life from turning upside down that one night. It was all just a ploy. Some game the world played to get them all happy and unsuspecting then playing the next card and completely destroying their lives. He detested sunny days.

That is, until he met Kanae. She was, as a whole, perhaps one of the sunniest people he had met. All bright smiles and shining eyes. At first, it disgusted him. Playing the typical optimistic protagonist wasn’t going to change anything. There was no plot armor to save her in the real world. Pair her happy-go-lucky attitude with this god forsaken, hell of a bright day? Unbearable.

Sanemi found, however, that it wasn’t quite as bad as he had anticipated. For one thing, Kanae was mostly quiet today, gazing at their surroundings. They were having some sort of post-training picnic thing that Kanae had dragged him on without his permission. As they settled down, Kanae handed Sanemi his food and they began to eat in silence, perched on benches that sat conveniently by the side of the road. This place was relatively isolated today, leaving them in blissful peace.

While eating, Kanae pointed out small things Sanemi hadn’t bothered to pay attention to in years. The birds, flitting from tree to tree, their chirping filling the air. A gentle breeze, swaying the trees and the grass. A lone butterfly that circled a bush, landing on a blooming flower, its wings opening and closing lazily. The distant sound of voices that were swept towards them through the air. The clouds that seemed to avoid the sun, never once obscuring the light.

As she spoke, Kanae’s eyes flicked from one thing to another, a smile gracing her lips. Sanemi found himself losing focus on her words, noticing smaller things about her in their proximity. The barely-there gradient of purple in her eyes, the way her eyelashes curved subtly forward instead of towards her. Little dimples that accompanied each smile, strands of hair that flew astray in the gentle wind. Her bangs bumping against her cheeks as she moved her head, the slightly crooked way she had clipped on one of the butterflies. Then he realized she had turned towards him, tilting her head slightly, eyebrows quirked.

“Shinazugawa?”

He started, face heating up. “Uh- What?”

She gave him a bemused smile. “You were staring.” Then, as an afterthought, she added, “at me. Is something wrong?”

He cleared his throat, scrambling to save his food that had almost slipped off his lap and turning back to her. “No. No, uh, I was thinking.”

“About?” She rightened herself, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear and placing her now-empty container of food beside her, offering him her full attention. “You haven’t eaten much,” she noted.

He frowned, looking down at his own container. He realized that he had, in fact, eaten very little. God, how long had he been staring? Feeling his cheeks burn, he averted his eyes, hoping his hair covered the worst of his blush. “Not hungry.”

“Ah! I’m sorry, is the food not good? I made it in a rush, so it may not be-“ she started. Sanemi interrupted her, raising a hand.

“No—it’s just that we were training recently and the adrenaline is still there,” he said quickly, making a show of beginning to eat again. Then he ate more quickly, deciding he liked Kanae’s cooking.

She let out a relieved breath. “Okay, then!” She turned, wrapping the cloth back around her container. “I’m glad you don’t mind it.”

“Mhm. Er, are you leaving?” he asked awkwardly, after a moment of contemplating if he should ask.

“What? No, not yet. Unless you’d rather eat alone,” she said apologetically.

He shook his head a bit too quickly. “No! I mean—it’s fine. I don’t… mind. Really.”

She nodded slowly. “Alright!”

As he finished eating, Kanae idled around, walking around the scattered flowers and somehow looking ethereal with the forest framing her, rays of sunlight that streamed through the trees making her eyes shimmer more than usual. Putting his container aside next to hers, he joined her, crouching down beside her to where she was looking down at something beyond his view.

“What’re you doing?” he asked. He didn’t understand why he was being so casual with her, but supposed he never understood her either so that was fine.

She looked up, smiling, and lifting her hand to place something in his hair. He frowned, reaching up and batting her hand away. Removing whatever the hell she had put on him, he found that she’d tucked a small flower there. Its petals were white with a gentle gradient of lavender. He raised an eyebrow and glanced back up at her.

“The hell?”

She laughed, a sound perceivable to music, really. “It reminded me of you. You know, you have white hair and purple-ish eyes.”

“Hm.” He turned, searching the ground and the field of random assortments of plants, looking for the right one. He stood, circling around. Spotting some roses that skirted around the edges of the forest, he strode towards the bushes, finding one in full bloom and returning back to her, offering her the rose. Its petals curved outward and down in a bright pink, the stem a green much more vibrant than it should be allowed. “Like your clip.”

Her cheeks warmed a rosy bloom and she smiled. “Thank you,” she said, delicately taking the flower.

For a moment, Sanemi didn’t understand her reaction. Then he realized he was giving her a flower—a rose, out of everything!—after eating lunch alone with her—which could basically pass off as a date—and he panicked. He was sure he would catch fire what with the temperature suddenly rising and he shifted. “Uhm. Anyway, thanks for lunch, I guess,” he said stiffly. “Bye.”

Kanae laughed. “I’m glad you came. It was fun.”

He decided to mention he hadn’t had a choice, nodding. He turned to leave, following the path they had taken earlier. She would probably follow later. As he reentered the forest, he turned once to see her still standing there, gazing at the flower in her hands with an expression he couldn’t make out from here. He continued into the clusters of trees, deciding that maybe—just maybe—he may enjoy sunny days now.

[cloveroctobers]

BARRY OBX — spring prompts 🕊️

A/N: although this fandom isn’t for me…there’s no way you thought I wouldn’t be writing something for Barry. Also only just finished episode six but thanks to tik-tok I was able to see a Barry edit for this season that was 👏🏽🙏🏾 👀 and further motivation to write this small thing. We still stanning over here! Also where are the new gifs at for this man?

Prompts are from this list & I’m using 4.) taking deep inhales of the fresh spring air + 24.) lying under the sunny sky and watching the clouds.

༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*

The sun gave just the right amount of warmth against Barry’s skin, which fought off the brisk air the now blossoming season provided. Barry found himself completely relaxed, laying on his back, arms folded behind his head and staring up at the puff of clouds that drifted along the sky.

He hardly had the time to just enjoy the weather, if he wasn’t working—scheming—depends who you ask. It felt pretty damn good to just be in the park, surrounded by the trees that whistles a sweet tune every so often. He was so comfortable and free that he finally felt his eyes slowly begin to close.

A harsh cough was released, making Barry snap his dark eyes open to realize that the sound was coming from the silhouette that was actually sitting on top of him.

You so happened to be sitting right on his lap, almost hacking up a lung with a hand on your chest.

Barry pushed himself up onto his elbows, furrow in his brows as he asked, “what’s happening, bloom?”

Once you caught your breath, you glanced back at Barry and wheezed, “I think something with wings went down my throat.”

“And how that happen?”

“I was just taking in the fresh air and the earth betrayed me like I’m not one of her own.”

Barry snorted to himself, sitting upwards to slip his hands from the sides of your ass to lock them around your waist. He then placed a kiss to the back of your neck, enjoying the weight of you on him.

He was really bonding with nature, your words not his and forgot that you also made yourself comfortable on his lap. If the both of you didn’t have a warning for “indecent exposure,” from mr. Park control (thanks to last time) then Barry would definitely initiate some freaky deaky actions to really promote this peaceful outing.

“Here, drink some.” Barry reached out and into the extra bag you brought with you.

His hand pulled out a glass bottle and squinted at the label then read it out loud, “elderflower rose lemonade. Don’t know where the hell you got this from but i hope it helps.”

Next he popped the bottle cap off with his teeth before holding it out for you to grasp.

Holding the bottle up in cheers, you went to sipping as Barry settled to the side back on his elbow. He then dragged your bag over by the books of the month the both of you were reading asking, “I think it’s about time we eat somethin’ don’t you? I sure hope you ain’t bring none of those croissants with that green shit that’s not weed sprinkled on top of it.”

It was your turn to laugh, remembering the look of disgust on Barry’s face when you brought him some matcha croissants. He was all for pastries but felt like once you started adding unnecessary items to the original? He had something to say about it.

“Lucky for you, there’s just sandwiches and chips in there. No funny business.” You replied, sliding off his lap to lay on your stomach beside him now.

How ironic of that statement to be made as the both of you got a view of a few familiar faces making their way through the park. Sarah peddled by on her bike with Cleo standing on the back of it, the two being oblivious to the couple as they carried on through the looped pathway; followed by Pope roller blading backwards after them, and lastly JJ who was on his skateboard, sending a middle finger mostly Barry’s way.

“I’ll chuck this bottle right at his wheels, send that boy skidding real quick.” Barry warned, fingers just itching for your drink.

Instantly, you slipped a hand up Barry’s collarbone, pass the gold chain on his neck, and continued traveling it up to his jawline to turn his attention back to yours.

“Nope, none of that. We are only focusing on the good weather today, all the new growth that’s comes with my favorite season, and how good i look in these jeans.” You encouraged.

Barry couldn’t help but to let his eyes trail downwards, making a dimple appear in his cheek as he placed a hand on the small of your back, before leaning forward to place his lips right on yours.

Which also erupted a smile from your own before you pulled apart, “and oh you’re not so bad to look at either…even if you chopped that luscious hair off.”

You ran a finger over the scar in Barry’s hair who scoffed, knowing you still felt some sort of way about his new-do…although that didn’t stop you from touching it—

Barry then let out a sigh and threw himself onto his back, getting another view of the vibrant sky and once more thinking about all the good possibilities that spring can bring. And as he turned his gaze from the clouds and focused back on your easy smile, he understood why you were named bloom.

༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*·˚-‘๑’-༊*

Continue along with my spring anthology prompts here.

[magnus-falafelking]

FIERROCHASE WEDDING SUMMARY!!!

wanna know how our special day went? here you go :)

[NOT MY FANFIC]

[MY FRIEND WROTE IT FOR TODAY]

Boston weather was always a coin toss. During the summer months, it could be gloriously warm and sunny, miserably hot and humid, or, especially during the first part of June, even chilly and rainy. Most summers on the back bay were a mixture of all these conditions, plus a splattering of dramatic thunderstorms, just to keep the grass growing. 

But today? Today was perfect. 

All day, the weather had been clear skies and a cool breeze. Even though Frey wasn’t supposed to make an appearance, Magnus couldn’t help but feel like he had something to do with the strangely favorable turn in the forecast. The sun peeked through the partly cloudy sky to dress the sides of the chase mansion in warm summer sunlight. It was beautiful. For so many years, whenever Magnus looked at this building, he’d felt like some angry god had installed a permanent storm cloud over the roof. It had always been shrouded in an aura of foreboding, always surrounded by darkness, and always made him feel a little uncomfortable. But today, with the sun shining warmly and the breeze rustling the paper streamers and handmade signs the homeless kids at the chase space had insisted on personally designing and hanging from nearly every window, even the gargoyles seemed to look a bit friendlier. 

As the sun started to set, there was a vibrant buzz of excitement on the top floor patio as friends, family, and the current residents of the Chase Space milled around in excitement and chatted about the evening’s events. The space had been done up beautifully by Samirah, Mallory, and Annabeth (who had done all the organizing, and most of the arguing about the way things should look) with help from Halfborn, Tj, and Percy (who had mostly broken up said arguments and lifted the heavy objects). It wasn’t extravagant, but there were chairs with little flower bouquets tied to them, and a little raised platform for the two of them to stand on, and Blitzen had personally arranged several extremely expensive looking potted flower arrangements for either side, so they would be framed by lilies and magnolias and roses and other flowers Magnus couldn’t remember the names of as they said their ‘I do's.’

The bedrooms on the third floor had been converted into changing rooms for the event. In the one on the south side of the house, Magnus was unfolding and refolding the paper with his vows on it as he looked out over the stunning view of the back bay. 

The day was finally here. He was finally going to marry Alex. 

In front of everyone, he was going to say a lot of things about how much he loved Alex, how much Alex meant to him, how much he needed Alex, how he would always be with Alex until the end of the world- literally.

“I think I’m gonna puke.” 

Behind him, several heads turned as Magnus gripped the edge of the railing on the little patio he was standing on. Blitzen came up behind him as he leaned over it, patting his back reassuringly as Magnus made sounds much more like someone who had eaten bad falafel than someone who was about to experience the happiest day of their life.

“Hey kid. Let’s back away from the railing before you go headfirst into the bushes. That would not be a good look on your wedding day.” Carefully, Blitzen pulled him back into the room, sitting him down in one of the available chairs and giving him some very fatherly and encouraging pats on the shoulder. He was really putting in the work Frey probably should have been there doing…

Around him, everyone was putting the finishing touches on their outfits. All perfectly tailored, of course, which Blitzen had done much preening about in the hours leading up to now. Despite their extremely varied figures, Tj, Halfborn, Hearthstone, and Blitzen were all dressed in the same suit. It was simple but elegant, a wool suit tailored to fit each of their varying frames, smooth silk shirts, a professional but understated waistcoat, and a pair of brown leather shoes to match their ties. The only differences were that Halfborn and Tj were dressed in shades of brown and green, and Hearthstone and Blitzen were wearing warmer, more sunny but not overbearingly bright colors. Halfborn was also sporting a kilt which was, apparently, the same color as Mallory’s outfit. The pair of them had insisted on matching separately, then found out about each other's request and insisted on NOT matching, then had some kind of argument that had begun with words and ended… well, still with tongues. Magnus hadn’t asked a lot of questions after that, and had just told Blitzen to make an executive decision. Seeing the amount of leg hair on display now, he wondered if Blitzen should be trusted with too many more of those, even if they DID relate to fashion.

 Magnus himself was dressed in the same suit, except his was a deep, forest green, his waistcoat was white and had some kind of a subtle metallic shine to it, and his silk shirt was a light, blush pink. 

Alex’s colors. He was happy to be wearing them.

His hair was trimmed but still longer, hanging neat and orderly around his anxious face. On the lapel of his suit, he was wearing a pin with the same symbol Alex had tattooed on his neck, the two entwined serpents, the reclaimed symbol of Loki pinned just over his heart. 

“Gettin’ cold feet, Magnus?” Halfborn was all smiles and mead-blushed cheeks, standing with one arm on the back of a chair as he worked his way through his second horn of booze this hour. He had insisted it was Norse tradition to get absolutely hammered for the entire ceremony and reception, and when no one had joined him, he’d insisted he’d carry the load alone. “Don’t drop your guts in here. It’s much more romantic if Alex gets to watch.”

Tj sighed, shaking his head as he put a hand on Halfborn’s huge shoulder and patted it a couple times. “Halfborn, I think you’ve had enough to drink until after the ceremony. Magnus is just excited, not getting cold feet. Right, Magnus?” Tj sent him a bright, confident and reassuring smile. His wedding suit was spotless, perfectly fitted and pressed with the care and attentiveness he always gave his regular uniform. For the first time in a long time, he wasn’t carrying his weapon. They were all on the property (just in case) but he looked a bit strange not having it right over his shoulder where it usually was. If it had been in his hands, he thought, Tj would look battle ready even in a wedding tuxedo. 

“Right.” Magnus’ voice was shaky. “Totally.”

All four of his wedding party exchanged a look. Each one of them took a seat, and Halfborn even set his drink down in its little stand as he half stumbled onto one of the couches and pinched his face into a decently impressive impression of a sober man.

Hearthstone sat nearest to Magnus, giving his arm a reassuring squeeze before he pulled his attention to sign to him. 

‘It’s normal to be nervous. No worries. Big day.’ He exaggerated the gesture for big with an appropriate facial expression, making it clear he understood how nervous Magnus really was. 

“I’d be nervous marrying Alex too.” Halfborn agreed. “The Argr is a bit unpredictable. He might get you up to the altar and-“ Beside him, Tj subtly kicked his leg, causing Halfborn to let out an “ouch” followed by some apologetic muttering. 

“Everyone gets nervous on their wedding day.” Blitzen agreed, looking over at Halfborn like he might want a turn. “That’s why there’s alcohol. To take the edge off the jitters. You’re fine, kid. You’ve handled way more difficult things than saying a few words.”

“The last time I said a few words about Alex I embarrassed myself in front of everyone.” Magnus leaned forward, dropping his head into his hands and making another one of those bad-falafel noises. “What if I mess up again? What if my vows suck?” His head shot up as he looked over at Hearth, eyes wide. “What if I lean in to kiss Alex and I puke into the kiss??” 

Hearthstone’s expression was a pretty clear don’t-be-ridiculous look (mixed with some disgust as he pictured a vomit-kiss unwillingly), but he still signed it out to reassure him. 

‘You will be fine. No puke in mouth. Won’t happen.’ 

“And if it does happen.” Halfborn assured him, his voice slightly slurred, “I’ll distract everyone by puking with you.”

“If anyone but Magnus throws up on these suits, I will personally drag the responsible party to Helheim and hand them over to the goddess herself.” Blitzen said coolly, eyeing halfborn with a narrowed gaze. 

Somehow, that made the tension in Magnus’ stomach settle a little. He even managed a laugh, fiddling with the paper with his vows on it again. “I’m glad you’re all here. I really didn’t know if Alex was going to agree to this or not. I bet they’re having a way easier time getting ready across the hall.” Alex was always so cool and calm and collected. Magnus was pretty sure his finance wasn’t considering which of his uncle’s expensive display vases it would be best to toss his cookies into.

“So, is it time for this then?” Halfborn patted the small, flat green box tied with a black bow he’d been entrusted with earlier that day. It was a decent size, but it looked small in halfborn’s massive hands. Inside was the gift he’d gotten for Alex for their wedding day. It wasn’t a lot, but he’d put a lot of effort into it. 

Magnus felt the butterflies that had been making his stomach their home for the last few days make a reappearance. Suppressing them must have pissed them off cause they were fluttering around his insides with a vengeance. “Y-yeah… I guess it’s probably time?”

Halfborn stood with a nod, carrying the box towards the door. “Gotcha. I’ll be delivering the package then!”

———-

Across the hall, the other wedding party was causing so much noise, it was a miracle the boys couldn’t hear it. 

“Catch it! Grab her! Don’t let her get to the door!” Furniture was overturned, pillows were torn and weapons were flying as Samirah, Alex, and Mallory chased something around the room. 

It had appeared when Alex had been checking the mirror to make sure the wedding suit was sitting right on her (for the fifteenth time in as many minutes) slithering up onto the fabric of the shoulder and whispering in her ear things nobody wanted to hear on any day, much less at their wedding. It had taken her a moment to figure out where the voice was coming from, but had spotted the tip of a little green head just over her shoulder in the mirror. 

Alex wasn’t willing to listen to bullshit any day, but especially not today. She’d grabbed and thrown the snake against a wall, the snake had hit the surface and flattened like one of those rubber sticky toys and slid down between the wall and a couch, and that had started a mess of moving things to get at it. 

“I know it’s you, mom!” Alex hissed, rolling on the floor and reaching under a chair, nearly missing grabbing the snake’s emerald green tail. “You weren’t invited! What are you doing here?”

The snake slithered over to a bookshelf, lifting up its head to peer at them. “Don’t be ridiculousss, Alexx …” the s sounds on the ends of his words were lengthened by the flicking tongue peeking out between those scaly lips, though it wasn’t clear if it was intentional or something Loki was doing for dramatic effect. “No child of mine will be married without my presenccce. I'm hurt you didn’t invite me. What have I ever done to deserve such disssregard-“ 

The snake’s speech was interrupted when a glowing spearhead sunk into the wood of the bookcase beside it, forcing Loki to dodge and slither away again. 

Samirah scowled, leaping over to retrieve her weapon and spinning around to look for where he had gone. “Nobody is humoring you today, Loki. You know exactly why you’re not welcome here.”

“Sorry, I know you’re family and all,” Mallory chimed in, her twin daggers flashing threateningly as she scanned the room for any sign of movements. “But the guest list is exclusive, and Sam and I are sort of responsible for watchin it. We’re gonna have to remove you if you don’t leave on your own.” Lighting fast, she stabbed her dagger down by a new moving lump in the carpet, nearly missing the worm. She scowled as she tried to land several more jabs in the twisting, contorting shape.

Samirah came to help Alex up off the floor as Mallory attempted to turn the rug in the room into Swiss cheese, straightening out the ruffled edges of the wedding suit. “Mallory is right, Alex. It’s our job to handle things like this. Don’t go jumping around and ruining your outfit.” As she spoke, she picked up her axe from a table beside her, throwing it as the snake came slithering out of the carpet and nearly pinning Loki to the wooden floor. The axe sunk in the old wood floorboards deep, but a few inches too far to the right, letting the snake slither away and under the door into the hallway.

“Oh Hel no.” Alex undid Sif’s garrote from her waist, making towards the door before both of the other women stopped her. 

“And just where do you think you’re goin?” Mallory asked, raising one fiery red brow at her. She and Samirah were both dressed in shades of pink, though Mallory’s pink was more of a rose red sort of color. It was a knee length dress, suited to running around a room toppling over furniture, which was pleated and patterned with a traditional Scottish plaid. The plaid pattern extended to a piece of fabric which lay up over one shoulder and went back down her back, and there was a belt cinching the whole operation in at the waist. Beneath the plaid she was wearing a plain white shirt, making her wholly more prepared looking for a fight than really anyone else Alex had seen all day. “I just said I’ll handle it. It’s only one snake, even if it is Loki.” She brandished a knife, wiggling it threateningly. “Think I can’t dissipate a little illusion magic? I swear, I just gotta catch him and you won’t need to worry for the rest of the week. I’ll send whatever piece of him came crawling up here right back where it came.”

“Yeah, I’m sure you will. I just think it’ll go faster if we all handle it together.” Alex pushed out of their hold, heading for the door. Her hands were a little sweaty as she gripped her garrote. Why was Loki here? What did he want? Did he really care that much about this stupid wedding? It was just some words they were saying, it’s not like it was anything super serious. Why had Loki decided to meddle in her life  again? She wasn’t sure, but she was 100% sure that the ceremony couldn’t go on if there was a worm wiggling around the Chase Space. No, it was definitely not okay that Loki was here. Loki was the cause of Alex’s anxiety, and Alex was going to stay anxious until she personally sent Loki back to that stupid cave. 

And anyways, it was better to be running around than sitting in this damn room counting down the minutes like she had been. Yes, definitely better to be chasing a snake that was actually your mother who is actually a mega-control-freak-shapeshifter than sitting in a stuffy old room staring at yourself in a mirror. 

Just as she put a hand on the door, Samirah pulled her back, placing herself between the exit and her sister. 

Samirah’s pink ensemble was much different than Mallory’s. Her dress was four or five shades of pink, and all layered organza. The skirt swept to the floor, and the sleeves were a sheer white lace that went all the way to her wrist, framed by loose curtains of the pink organza that fell delicately over her shoulders. With the hijab around her head, she looked a bit like an upside down rose the way the diagonal hanging layers of the dress cascaded around her form. 

Sam may have looked nice, but blocking the door was a very dangerous move. Alex had to respect it a bit, but she didn’t have to agree with it. 

“Sam, it’s my wedding day and I want to hunt a snake.” Alex’s voice was as tight as her grip on the garrote handles she was brandishing threateningly. 

“No, you want to escape dealing with your anxiety by cutting something into a million pieces.” Sam corrected, folding her lace covered arms over her chest. “And while I understand that living in Valhalla has inclined you towards such… violent forms of stress relief, I’m not allowing you to do this today. It’s a little sliver of spirit. Easily dispersed. Loki is still weak and recovering from… last time.” Samirah sighed, taking Alex by the shoulders and forcing her to sit on one of the chairs. When she had finally wrestled the garrote out of her sister’s hands and secured it back around her waist, she knelt in front of her to hold them in her own. “There’s no reason to assume he could show up in any significant form. He didn’t even change shape once, so he must be too weak to manage it. He’s just trying to get in your head and ruin your wedding. You’ve proven over and over that he has no power over you. Don’t give up that control just because you’re nervous about the wedding. Let us handle it and you just stay here and relax.”

“No trouble at all, Fierro.” Mallory assured her, finally un-wedging her knife from the floorboards. “We’ll go deal with this. You wait here and look pretty.”

Alex made some sort of sound that was probably more jaguar than frustrated human, grabbing a pillow and vaulting off the couch to chuck it full speed at the wall. “I’m not going to sit around in this room like a decoration ! If my mom wants a piece of me I’ll give her one!”

“Alex, no!” Samirah grabbed her arm, giving her a stern look. “I know you’re anxious. I promise it will be fine. Really, I swear. Please, let me handle it? And just take a few minutes to calm down, okay?” Samirah put on her best pleading expression, her hold on her arm softening. “I just… I just want you to be happy. I don’t want you to worry about anything today. Please…”

Alex didn’t know what she was feeling. Confused, angry, startled, nauseous… all the emotions were building up all at once. She felt a strange, almost uncontrollable desire to shift. Felt like her skin was itching to change, like maybe if she became something slippery enough she could slide out of this mess, or maybe change into something with a roar loud enough to quiet the buzzing that had been in her head all day. She had almost been happy to see Loki. Not because she wanted to, but because it gave her something to focus on besides how she really felt about this whole wedding situation…

Scared. 

After a long, silent stare-down, Alex crossed her arms and turned her head away, hoping she’d withdrawn fast enough to hide the way they were trembling. “Fine. Whatever. Call me when you need my help catching the slippery bastard.”

Samirah let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding, nodding with the warmest smile she’d had all day. “We’ll call if we need you. Come on, Mallory.” 

————

[Song accompaniment: Wonder by Shawn Mendez]

Magnus had most often found it best to follow the rules. When his mom had been alive, she’d even accused him of being a little too well behaved sometimes, pinched his cheeks and told him he should sneak out or talk back. “Live a little, be a kid” or something like that. It wasn’t like he had a strong inclination towards the law or whatever, it was just usually easier and created less issues to do things the legal, reasonable way. 

But, his two years on the streets had taught him a lot of things, and one of those things was that sometimes, breaking the rules was sort of a necessary thing. Like when you hadn’t eaten in three days and there was nothing edible in the dumpster, so you had to swipe a sandwich from a deli. 

Or when your whole wedding party suddenly leaves your dressing room to deal with some kind of pest control emergency (since when did the Chase Space have worms?) and left you holding the box that someone else was supposed to deliver to your fiancée. 

Magnus stood awkwardly in front of Alex’s dressing room door, lifting and lowering his hand a few times. Should he leave it and run? Should he stay? Did it really matter if they saw each other a little early?

Inside the room, Alex was sitting with her feet up on the couch, knees to her chest and thoughts racing. There was too much to consider. Her eyes settled on a little ship in a bottle on the bookshelf across from her as a storm started brewing in her mind. 

Did Mangnus really want to marry her? Why were they getting married anyways? Mallory and halfborn broke up every other month and fought like crazy. What if they started fighting like that in a hundred years and wanted a divorce? 

The ship in the bottle seemed to move, swaying on the waves of Alex’s frenzied thoughts. 

Why was Loki here? Did he have some sort of plan to mess with her life again? Did he want to stop the marriage so that he could try and force her into another one like he tried to do to Samirah? Like she was almost forced to do when she took samirah’s place?

Her thoughts were so wild and all-encompassing that she didn’t notice the way her hands were shaking, didn’t notice the way her eyes were reddening. The memory of drinking out of the cup after Thrymm at her first wedding returned to her against her will. She’d been forced to do it, and the realization that the ceremony might have actually been completed made her almost as nauseatingly disgusted as the thought of sharing his backwash-wine did. She felt sick. The ship in the bottle seemed like it might capsize-

There was a knock at the door, followed by a familiar voice. 

“Uh… hey Alex. It’s me.”

The noise stopped. The sky seemed to clear. Alex blinked, wiping something wet and hot away from her eyes as she looked at the ship on the shelf. It was still.

“I know I’m not supposed to see you yet. Or uh, well, I mean you’re not supposed to see me either. but… there’s no rules about our voices, right?”

On the other side of the door, Magnus was fidgeting anxiously, rolling up onto his toes and back onto his heels like a weird little doll, bobbing back and forth in a way that would have made Alex laugh if she could have seen. “I just came to bring you your gift.”

Alex glanced towards the door, her body uncurling from its little ball before she even thought about it. Her feet moved without her direction, like Magnus was a lighthouse in her little storm guiding her safely to shore. She stopped a foot or so from the door, finding it startlingly easy to level out her voice. “You are breaking the rules, chase.” Her voice was barely shaking. She felt warm. She always felt warm around Magnus. 

Magnus felt his lips turn up into one of those stupid goofy smiles that always made Alex blush. He didn’t fight it. “Yeah well, you know, I figured you’d be way more into me if I broke a few rules.” 

Alex laughed a little. The sound was genuine, so the edges of the sound were tinged with the lingering fear that Magnus always chased away. “You’re an idiot.” 

“Ooh, careful. In a couple hours I’m going to be youridiot. Like, forever. You wouldn’t want to be married to an idiot, would you?”

“Probably not. Not unless he’s really hot. I mean, he’s gotta be really, really hot.”

Magnus’s grin got a little wider as he felt a swell of confidence. “Oh yeah? So you think I’m really really hot? Like really really really -“

“Alright chase, you’re pushing it. Three reallys? That’s crazy.” 

By now, both of them were pressed up against the door. If there hadn’t been a piece of wood between them, they would have been forehead to forehead, nose to nose. Magnus swore he could feel Alex’s breath on his cheeks if he closed his eyes. 

Alex felt completely calm. The rolling waves in her stomach had changed to a warm, bubbly feeling. Ah, right. What a dummy she’d been. Alex wasn’t marrying Magnus because someone told her to. She wasn’t marrying Magnus because he was strong or cool, or really really really hot. 

Alex wanted to marry Magnus because to her, Magnus felt like home. She’s realized recently that Magnus was warm and summery and light, and that just being near him made her feel warm and summery too. Her whole life had been a hurricane of wild misfortune and crazy happenstance, everyone and everything whipping her wildly in every direction all at once. 

But whenever Magnus was there, she knew she’d found the eye of the storm, and that was never going to change. 

“This is crazy.” The words left her lips before she could stop them, and she felt a momentary pang of guilt and fear, her eyes flicking up to the wood as if she could peer through it to see Magnus's reaction. Crap. 

“Yeah. It’s pretty crazy.” Magnus agreed, turning the box in his hands around a few times. “I mean, I never thought I’d get married. And I kind of thought if I did get married, I’d still be alive when it happened.” 

“Ghost marriages exist.” Alex ventured, her brain fried from all the emotional ups and downs. 

“Yeah, I know. We’re doing one I think.” Magnus pulled his head back from the door, reaching for the handle. “Here. This is for you.” He pulled the door open a crack, just enough to pass the box through. “Tj said I’m supposed to give you a gift before the ceremony? Halfborn was gonna bring it over but I guess we have worms…” 

As if on cue, the sound of something crashing came from downstairs, followed by the sound of a berserker shouting at the top of his lungs. 

“Must be big worms…”

Alex stepped away from the door and set the box down on a table, carefully untying the ribbon. Her hands started to shake again as she lifted the lid, carefully peeling back the tissue to see what was cradled inside. 

After a few moments of terrifying silence from both Alex and the lower levels of the house, Magnus heard the loudest, most ridiculous laugh he’d ever heard come from behind the door. For a moment it made him smile, then his smile faltered slightly when it seemed like Alex was laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe. “What? I did my best!”

Alex was practically rolling over what she’d found in that box. In her hands she held a little clay figurine of (she was pretty sure) an animal, only she couldn’t tell what animal it was supposed to be. It was just big enough to fit in her palm, and seemed to be some kind of cow-goat-giraffe hybrid. It had a neck that was just a bit too long, short stubby little legs that came to strangely sharp points, what appeared to be a cat’s tail, and a lump of clay that was surely supposed to be designed into some kind of face, but Alex couldn’t for the life of her see it as much more than a smushed in thumb with eye holes that was smiling at her in a comically goofy way. The worst part was the little cow-giraffe’s dorky smile kind of looked like Magnus if she squinted. She had to put the figure down in the tissue so she didn’t break it as she nearly collapsed on the floor. 

“Mag- Magnus. Please tell me-haha! T-tell me what the Helheim im looking at.”

Magnus was moping on the other side of the door, a serious pout on his face. “… you really can’t tell…?”

“Oh gods. Hahah! Go- go back to your room. Hah! Oh my gods… I’ll see you in an hour. I’m giving you the biggest goddamn kiss when it’s time.” 

Alex couldn’t stop the laughs still slipping out of her lips as she picked up and cradled the little clay figurine in her hands like it was some kind of treasure. By the sound of Magnus’ excited little trot back to his side of the hall, it seemed like they were both in much better spirits. 

————

[Song accompaniment: Electric Love by BØRNS]

It took the wedding party an hour to deal with the pest control issue, which fortunately meant they were done right on time to walk the aisle. 

Unfortunately, that also meant that Mallory was walking the aisle with some kind of ash from an explosion on the left side of her skirt, and blitzen had to do a last minute patch of hearthstone’s sleeve, which had ripped in the scuffle with the worms. The state of them had confused Magnus, but they had all insisted it didn’t matter, and hurried into their places. 

They’d definitely looked worse. At least Halfborn was still wearing his shirt.

As the sun set over the horizon, settling a halo of golden hour glow over their reception venue, the ceremony began. 

The first down the aisle was the officiant, Jack. 

It was really a good thing that most people in attendance could see through the mist, because for the few that couldn’t, he couldn’t imagine what display was replacing a self-levitating talking sword. They had briefly considered using someone else for this role, but upon being rejected, Jack had offered to MC via acapella renditions of all their favorite songs for the whole evening, and had swiftly been returned the offer of officiating. He floated quite impressively to the end of the aisle, then spun to face the crowd in a pretty show-offey flourish. Magnus figured he was probably smiling. 

Up next were the boys. Tj walked the Aisle first, proudly taking his position at the side of the groom with a way too excited look on his face. He was followed swiftly by Halfborn, but only after Mallory had cursed him out in Gaelic and taken the mead horn from his hand that he’d been trying to walk down with. 

After that it was Magnus’ turn. Gods he was terrified. Alex wasn’t even up there yet and he was terrified!

He took a deep breath, straightening his jacket and trying to settle his stomach as Blitzen and Hearthstone came up on either side of him. 

Blitzen adjusted his own jacket, giving him a wink and a confident smile. “We got you, kid. No worries.”

Hearthstone nodded on his other side, signing ‘right beside you.’ 

Arms interlocked in what had to be a cheesy way, they made their way down the aisle together. Magnus was glad for the handhold, because when he started making eye contact with people, he felt like his knees might give out. He spotted Annabeth and Percy in the crowd, his cousin waving and smiling sweetly at him. Percy looked as cool and calm as ever. How did he do that all the time?

The walk to the altar felt like it took forever. By the time they stopped, Magnus wondered if they’d missed the ceremony altogether. 

“Welcome señor! Now that the groom has arrived, it’s time for the ladies~.” 

The crowd mercifully turned their attention away from Magnus. Blitzen and Hearthstone stayed beside him, holding his hands and giving him reassuring squeezes as they watched the entrance. 

Mallory came first. She’d made a good fuss about it earlier in the day, but she seemed happy now to be filling the role of flower girl. Most of her argument had been they hadn’t needed a flower girl, and if Samirah wanted one so bad how come she didn’t throw the flower then, and of course Alex had enjoyed the little spat and not helped settle it at all by saying she didn’t care either way. In the end, Mallory had agreed to be the “best damn cailín bláthanna anyone had ever seen”, and Magnus had to admit she was doing pretty well. Although it should be said there wasn’t much to throwing flower petals. 

When Mallory joined them on the altar, Jack's blade seemed to brighten up a little more, his runes glowing a soft pink as he spoke again. “Señors and señioritas, would you please join me and rise for the presentation of Alex Fierro?”

Eager smiles filled the faces as the door to the top patio of the Chase Mansion opened, and Samirah and Alex stepped out into the light of the setting sun. 

And oh, gods, did Magnus nearly fall over. 

Alex was dressed in a suit that hugged her body in every proper way. It wasn’t like his, it was… hard to describe. The base color wasn’t too far off the green of his own suit, but it was accented with beautiful shades of pink lining some of the seams and peeking out between the folds of the suit around the neck. Where Magnus's suit had sharp, smart lines that gave him an air of masculinity, Alex’s outfit was soft curves and gentle slopes. The way it moved made it seem like Alex was switching genders with every step. Like she was glowing with the sunset and becoming one with the wind. Like the breeze tossing his hair to the side might have also subtly changed the shape of his nose. Trailing behind him and draping off the back of the coat was a long, elegant train. It was a gradient pink to white, and glittered with the adornment of several hundred tiny crystals. Each one of them glittered a different color depending on the way the light hit them, making the whole thing seem to glitter in the setting sun. It seemed to be attached to the suit jacket in several places, at the shoulders, the waist… When Alex turned to pull the train from the stairs, her silhouette was so completely feminine. The suit seemed to shift fully into a dress, and the dress seemed to curve around her body perfectly. When the train was free and Alex faced front again, the suit came back into view, and the heavy stare that Alex leveled at him combined with the full frontal focus of the suit snapped him straight in the opposite direction so hard he almost fell into Blitzen. 

For the first time, his sense of Alex’s gender was a mystery.

Blitzen steadied him, nodding appreciatively. “I know, Magnus.” He patted his pseudo-son on the back, leaving the ‘I outdid myself’ silent. 

Alex took Samirah’s arm as the door closed behind them, and the pair of them made their way towards the altar. With every step, Magnus swore he could see Alex shift and change. He was fluid, harmonious, breathtakingly beautiful. As Alex got closer he could see the little bits of makeup she’d put on, and as he came up to the altar, Magnus said a rushed prayer to his dad that he wouldn’t fall over when Blitzen and Hearthstone let him go. 

Samirah gave Alex a kiss on the cheek, whispering something in her ear and left to take her spot on the Altar. 

Blitzen stepped up to Alex first, somewhat awkwardly reaching out to take her hand and shake it. “Alright, Alex. We’re handing him off. It’s a big responsibility.”

If Alex was nervous, it didn’t show. His expression was confident and maybe a little cocky as he shook Blitzen’s hand. “Yeah, I know.” 

“You take care of him properly.”

“I will.”

“Cause if you don’t, you know we can-“

Hearthstone cleared his throat, raising one thin brow when Blitzen turned to him with a scowl. The attending audience laughed politely. “Alright, alright. I get it.” 

Hearthstone stepped down to join him, smiling and nodding once before he signed. ‘We are happy to be here. Happy for both of you.’ He turned to Magnus when he signed ‘both’. He reached out his hand towards Alex, who placed her hand in his. He guided Alex up to the altar, then carefully placed his hand in Magnus’ hand, giving them both a little squeeze before he let go. 

Magnus wasn’t sure, but he thought he might have seen hearthstone brush away a tear when he and blitz went to sit down. 

“Aaaalrighty then, let’s get to it!” Jack said happily, swaying excitedly back and forth as he started in on the ceremony. Since Jack was a minister (for some reason) ordained a long time ago, his ceremony didn’t deviate too far from the one they had attended (and ruined?) before. They each shared a drink out of the same cup of wine, Jack floated sideways and impressively delivered a proper blessing on their rings while using himself as the tool of blessing, and there even seem to be a fairly targeted break in the clouds when they took turns slipping the rings on, filled with the warmth of summer. 

“Now that someone is done showing off ,” Jack said with a sour tone as their magical halo of ring-exchanging light dimmed and the sun finally began to dip all the way down. He muttered something that made his runes glow just barely, then brightened up as he floated a little higher again. “Magnus, you may say your vows to your beloved~.”

“Right. Cool.” Magnus smiled, still holding onto Alex’s hand where Hearthstone had joined them. Should he go for the paper with just one hand? Was it okay to let go? Probably not. Best to keep holding on, right? He didn’t want to let Alex go anyways. With one hand, he dug into his pocket for the folded up paper with his vows. Then, still holding his hand, he did his best to unfold them against his leg with his one free hand, smoothing it out clumsily and nearly dropping it. 

Could Alex have let him go and helped him out? Absolutely. Was he enjoying this display of genuine awkward lovable idiocy too much to help? Absolutely. 

As he watched Magnus finally get a hold of the situation (and the paper), he couldn’t help the snort of laughter that broke out of him. He waved off Magnus’ confused look with his free hand, gesturing for him to read his vows as the crowd giggled with him. 

Was he ever going to let go of Magnus’ hand?

Absolutely not. 

“Okay, got it.” Magnus smiled sheepishly, hoping the hand Alex was holding wasn’t too clammy. He gave her an apologetic smile as he cleared his throat and glanced at the paper. 

“Alex,” the name came out a little awkward, but he smiled through it. “Ever since you came to Valhalla and garroted my head off, I was intrigued by you.” He glanced up to see if Alex was still there, then back down at the paper. 

Yep, still there. 

“You were mysterious and mesmerizing, but I wanted to know more. I wanted to know you.” The words were coming easier now, but Magnus still felt like if he looked up he might start remembering how he’d felt a few hours before, and he just really didn’t need the thought of bad falafel at this exact moment. “And… through these years we’ve been together, as I’ve come to know you…” he looked up. It mattered this time. He had to look up, and when he met Alex’s eyes, he felt like he might not even need the paper anymore. 

Still held on to it though, just in case. 

“I think I’ve finally found what I’m looking for.” He smiled, the tension leaving him. For a minute, he felt like maybe they weren’t standing on a stage in front of a bunch of people. Maybe they were somewhere alone, maybe he was just telling Alex these things in private. They were sitting at a campfire, huddled together, things were undefined but Magnus knew what he knew, what he felt, and what he needed to say. “The piece of you that makes me vow to love you and stay by your side forever. And that piece is you, Alex. Who you really are. With all your compassion, courageousness, and with everything you’ve been through, you make me admire you more every day.” He smiled, squeezing the hand he still hadn’t let go of. “I love every part of you, Alex. And I want to stay with you forever, past ragnarok.”

There was a little cheer around the crowd, as well as what seemed like some sniffling sounds emanating from Jack’s blue glowing runestones. “Couldn’t have said it better myself señor.”

Magnus glanced towards Hearth and Blitz, both of whom gave him a thumbs up. Tj patted him on the shoulder, whispering “Great job, Magnus. The hard part is over!” In his ear. 

Magnus smiled and nodded, still holding Alex’s hand like a lifeline as he shoved the paper into his pocket, missed, bent to pick it up, tried to shove it in again, missed again-

After watching him struggle, Alex sighed and shook his head, reaching out to take it. He mercifully did not release his hand, using one of his own to fold the sheet back up as the crowd laughed some more. 

“Here.” He leaned over, tucking it into Magnus’ pocket. “Try not to lose it.”

“Right.” He nodded, still grinning dumbly as Alex rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Okay Señiorita, it is officially your turn to confess your undying love for Magnus.” Jack directed, floating a little closer to Alex. 

“Cool.” Alex nudged the sword back into place with an elbow. “Personal space, please.” For the first time since coming up to the altar she looked nervous. Magnus could tell, even if Alex didn’t want him to tell. It was reassuring, feeling the way Alex’s hand trembled slightly in his own, noticing that Alex was just as eager to hold on. Alex even reached out to take the other hand too, fully facing him.

“Wait, don’t you need to-“

“I memorized it.” Alex said evenly, shrugging. “I’ve got it.” Despite her cool demeanor, her hands were trembling a little, just like his. 

She took a breath, focusing both two-toned eyes completely on Magnus and doing her best not to think about how many people were staring directly at them. “Mags.” Her lips twitched into a smile, hands squeezing his. “Beantown. Maggie.” Their audience giggled. Alex dropped her shoulders a half inch, relaxing. “I can’t believe that we’re actually getting married. Honestly, you must be a saint.” She squeezed his hands again, her eyes flickering down to them instead of Mangnus’ stupid perfect sunny face. “I’m flawed and I’m well aware. I know I can be annoying and loud and too flashy…” she trailed off, still not meeting his eyes. He squeezed her hands back, drawing her attention. He was still smiling, but his brow was creased slightly, as if he was saying “what are you talking about, dummy?” He shook his head just slightly. 

Alex felt a rush of warmth. Maybe it was a little bit of that weird Frey magic. Maybe it was just Magnus. 

She met his eyes again, and all the tension went out of her. “But, in the end, you're my person. And I’m yours, too. And while I may be kinda mean sometimes, I do love you. So much.” She nodded, seeming satisfied with her speech. “So yeah, I do.”

Behind Magnus, Halfborn’s voice broke up the sniffling and “awe”s coming from the audience. “Is that it?” 

Mallory bent down and pulled off her shoe, shooting it across the altar and beaning Halfborn in the head. Magnus didn’t even notice. 

“Relax the smile, Maggie, your face is gonna get stuck.” Alex whispered, reaching up to pinch his cheek. 

Magnus nodded, blinking back tears. His smile didn’t waver. 

“If there are no other blessings to be offered, then I will call for the end of the ceremony.” Jack said, wiggling around behind the couple on the altar like he was looking for someone to stand up, then glancing up towards the sky. When no one moved and it didn’t seem like frey was going to descend from the clouds, he bobbed up and down a couple times, glowing a little brighter. “In that case, dudes and dudettes of the assembly, I am totally thrilled to pronounce these two souls bound for life. Or uh… until the end of the world. You may now- oh.”

Alex didn’t wait to be told. As soon as they were given permission, she took a fistful of that expensive suit and swung Magnus around, dipping him dramatically and pressing their lips together. 

Magnus wasn’t sure if he was dizzy with excitement or because of how fast Alex had spun him around. He figured that was going to happen a lot from now on. 

———-

[Song accompaniment: Paper Rings/New Romantics by Taylor Swift]

The after-ceremony celebration was wild beyond expectations. Actually, it was a miracle upon miracles that no cops were called in for a noise complaint. 

It had started off relatively reasonably, with a little bit of magical mead carried over from Valhalla and a few uninvited guests (not wedding crashers really, just friends of friends), and had quickly somersaulted into what was basically an out of control house party. 

At first they were just playing music on the roof deck. People were dancing and hanging out, and there were a few volunteer valkyries running for food and drink from Valhalla (courtesy of a new catering service offered by Odin. They had gotten a discount for trying it out.) Of course there was catering from Fadlan’s Falafel as well, managed by Amir personally. Any time magnus came anywhere near him he was offering the new groom a plate of falafel. For once he wondered if he might be able to get sick of it. When some other Enherji had spotted the running Valkyries asked about where they were going, the attendance list of the wedding had started growing, and people had started looking for interesting things to do on the lower floors. 

By midnight, from the roof deck to the front lawn, there was music, drinking, and all out revelry. Even those who had abstained from the alcohol seemed to be overtaken by the mood of the celebration. There was an impromptu karaoke room set up in the study, a bowling tournament using some of Randolph’s old statues occurring in the hallway on the second floor, and since the catered food didn’t seem to be satiating them anymore, people had started raiding the kitchen of the Chase space for some kind of cooking operation. When Magnus peeked into the kitchen, he saw a lot of things going into a blender that didn’t seem like they were meant to go together, followed by several large burly guys daring each other to chug a disgustingly thick concoction. 

There were no weapons allowed, since many of the guests were Enherji and couldn’t be trusted to mix partying with violence and not end up dead over it, but there were still stick sword fights in the hallways branching out into all out Guerilla warfare. As Magnus moved from room to room defending his new wife, he noticed some of the Einherjar teaching the kids from the Chase Space how to fight, and noticed some of them were pretty good fighters.

That probably wasn’t a great sign for the future conflicts they were going to be dealing with, but whatever. Tonight was a good night. He was married. He didn’t Puke in Alex’s mouth or fall off the stage or embarrass himself, and he even got to look cool in front of the homeless kids, which was great for his ego. 

And best of all, Alex was next to him all night. The two of them were practically glued together, and Magnus was over the moon about it. He barely needed a drink of mead to start feeling drunk and giddy. They went from room to room playing games, laughing, and generally causing a bit of chaos. At one point, the play-war happening separated into the living vs the Einherjar, and he and Percy had had a very impressive sword fight in the front yard. He’d been one horn of mead in at the time, and was pretty sure he shouldn’t have been able to beat him, but Percy had taken a somewhat dramatic dive into the river after a good strike, leaving Magnus standing stunned on the bank for a few seconds before everyone exploded in applause. Alex had given him an excited reward kiss and shouted something at Annabeth as she was towing her wet boyfriend out of the river. 

Annabeth didn’t seem upset, and Magnus was pretty sure he’d seen her smiling the whole time as she’d given Percy a kiss of his own. 

It had been a few years since he’d died, and even though he’d stopped counting, he was pretty sure he was over Valhalla’s legal drinking age, or at least that he had earned it saving the world once or twice. So, after his glorious victory, he’d had a couple more drinks, offered some fighting tips to his eager (and drunk) troops, then wandered off to find somewhere to hide with Alex. 

The two of them were hiding for a few hours. No one ever figured out where, or what they had been doing, and they were extremely tight lipped, if very smiley about it, when they came back out to the party. They made a stop in the karaoke office for Magnus to do a frankly impressive performance of Taylor Switf’s ‘Lover’ to a flustered Alex sitting in a chair. He was still singing it when they headed out of the room. 

Near the end of the night the two groups of hallway fighters had called for an orderly competition, and they’d settled on a tournament of sorts on the rooftop. The chairs had been pushed aside and a circle had been marked off in the center of the space. It seemed like they were playing a game of King of the Ring, taking turns pushing eachother out of the circle and cheering excitedly when someone won. 

When Alex and Magnus had wandered up, the competitors had arranged a sort of throne for the two newlyweds to spectate the ongoing competition from. It was just a couple of chairs pushed together with the flower arrangements from the ceremony next to them and a bunch of pillows, but Magnus did kind of feel like a king every time they cheered and raised their glasses towards him. 

Alex came half wobbling over after refilling a plate full of snacks. Tossing her plate down on her seat, she planted herself directly into her new Husband’s lap with a happy wiggle.

Huh. Husband. Weird. 

“Make room, mags.” She pushed his arms and legs around a little until she was comfortably sitting sideways on his lap with her feet over the armrest, then reached over to pull the plate of food into her lap. 

“Mags?” Magnus was grinning. He'd had something to drink since they came back out. It might have been spiked? He hadn’t asked. Everything seemed kind of warm and funny. He felt a little dizzy, but he wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the smell of whatever Perfume Alex had put on. Alex seemed in a similar state. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t using the mean nicknames. Happily, he wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed. 

“Hey, I’m eating!” She elbowed him, steadying her plate of cookies and chips. “Sit still or I’ll get a proper chair.”

“Okay.” He nodded like a dummy, then rested his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. After a few minutes of shouting, a round of the competition finished, and the whole roof let out a cheer. Magnus smiled, squeezing Alex again. 

“‘Mhappy.��� He muttered, his voice quiet and next to her ear. 

Alex paused, tilting her head towards him and raising a brow. “Better be.”

“Mhm.” He nodded a couple times, his chin bumping her shoulder. “Mmm.”

She offered him a piece of cookie, which he ate obediently. “Magnus.” Her voice was soft, a little slurred. 

“Mmm?” He turned to look at her, meeting her eyes and trying to focus. 

“I love you.”

The two of them sat there, staring at each other for a few moments. The air was warm, the sky lit up with stars. They were surrounded by a hundred happy people there to celebrate them. Still, the best moments of the day were ones like this. Ones where they felt completely alone, and understood each other completely without saying any words. Magnus’s big dummy smile spread across his lips, and for once, Alex’s drunk mind didn’t bother trying to hide her own in return. 

“Yeah.” Magnus nodded. “I know.”

————————————————————————

TAGS: @alex-fierro-pr-nightmare@mallory-keen-to-kill@thomas-jefferson-jr@halfbornhalfdead@lordofsummergodofrizz@deadmomclubattendee@imhotterthanallofyou@that-hijabi-loki-spawn@runest0nes@blitzen-imnot-that-short

[lets-try-some-writing]

Writing idea:

The bots not understanding that rain on earth is water for a while which doesn’t hurt humans or them really (as long as everydries off after) and them being rather concerned when they hear a human got caught in the rain. even when smokescreen first arrived he panics when Arcee mentions it looks like it’s going to start raining soon and makes no effort to call for a ground bridge. And just in general what all of the bots would think the first time they experienced earth’s rain and learning that in some places the water that falls is even safe enough for humans to consume.

I've actually thought about this before and I still think its a great idea. Cybertron probably didn't have any safe rainfall after all.

What the Frag is this Wet Slag!

Optimus and his team were prepared to deal with organic things when they arrived on earth, including the weather. However they really weren't expecting just about anything earth had to offer them. They had done some research on the journey over, but their reports were millennia old and mostly didn't apply anymore, and so when they arrived on earth they were shocked at just about everything.

The concept of a clear sunny day was a bit unusual to them as on Cybertron even when the light of the nearest star was at its brightest, the skies were still somewhat dark. Wind was nothing new, that with raging dust storms being a very common thing on Cybertron. Of course the amount of dirt and grime contained within the wind was new and earned more than a few curses from the team as they struggled to get dust out of their seams. Cloudy weather was somewhat off-putting but not too out of the ordinary. To the team the clouds looked like the smog that polluted Cybertron's sky before and during the war. It wasn't particularly startling.

And then it rained.

The team's first response was to start screaming and dash for shelter as the water droplets began to fall. Arcee forced herself under the nearest overhand and clung to the wall for dear life, terrified of the rain. Cliffjumper transformed and skidded into the nearest human garage, which luckily for him, had no humans present at the time. Bulkhead threw himself against the nearest rock face and blasted a reasonable sized hole into it, which he promptly crammed himself into. And Optimus being far too large to hide, instead used his frame to shield Ratchet and Bumblebee from the rain as Ratchet hurriedly began remotely calling for a groundbridge.

Once the groundbridge opened, every single member of the team threw themselves into it like it was their saving grace. It was only after they got back to base and realized that "Oh my plating isn't melting off my frame" that they realized that the rain didn't seem to have any effects. It left the team baffled for weeks, with each of them very very cautiously sticking a pede out into the rain to see if it would start to melt or begin to sizzle. When nothing happened the team were still cautious, wondering if it simply took time for the effects of rain to become prominent. But after Bulkhead lost a bet with Ratchet and was forced to stand out in the rain for a few hours and still came back unaffected, the team finally started to calm down.

Bumblebee took to loving the rain once he figured out that it couldn't harm him, leading him to go out every time rain rolled in to play until it stopped. Of course he eventually started to accumulate rust just about everywhere not easy to dry and was forced to get some protective coating put on his plating if he wanted to continue messing around in the rain. Bulkhead never ended up liking the rain due to how much of a pain it was to dry off afterward, but it was tolerable to him. Arcee and Cliffjumper found the rain to be interesting due to how much the organics relied on it, but mostly they found it irritating due to how it messed up the roads and got much in every inch of their plating.

Ratchet was less than pleased with the rain, mainly because he is near certain he is cursed due to the fact that every single time he leaves Jasper, he gets rained on and usually can't get back to base for a few hours after the matter. Optimus personally doesn't mind the rain, and in fact he finds it nice just to stand out in the middle of nowhere and feel the cool rain on his frame, a nice distraction from everything.

However every single one of the bots agrees that large bodies of water. are. the. worst. Not one spark likes going anywhere near a body of water deeper than twenty feet. One reason for this is because their everything gets soaked after the matter. However the main reason is due to the fact that literally none of them know how to swim and so if they got stuck at the bottom of the ocean, they would just be stuck there until they could walk out. And that in it of itself is terrifying. No bot wants to know what lives down in the deepest parts of earth, not after learning about all the downright horrifying things that call earth home and are considered normal.

Thankfully for the team, the human children only arrived in their lives long after the fear of rain had subsided. At worst the children saw a bot hesitate to step out into the rain, thinking that it might be the acid rains of Cybertron for a moment before realizing that water is safe. And so the bots were spared of teasing and humiliating evidence of their fears... until Smokescreen arrived. The poor rookie had absolutely no training in regards organic worlds and no information whatsoever. And while the team managed to get him mostly up to date on earth and what he needed to know... they may or may not have forgotten about the rain thing due to the base's location in the dry as bone town of Jasper.

And so when it did rain while Smokescreen was out with Arcee on patrol, it most certainly didn't end well.

Arcee: *Looking up at the clouds* It looks like its going to rain soon

Smokescreen: *Looking up in horror* It's going to wHAT!?!

Cue Smokescreen sending an emergency signal to Ratchet, getting the whole team riled up thinking that something is wrong, only to arrive to Smokescreen huddling under some trees desperately trying to stay out of the rain while Arcee watched on in amusement. They managed to haul Smokescreen back to base and explain the whole concept of rain, but the rookie only started liking the idea of rain after a few months of watching every bot be totally chill with it. However poor Smokescreen ended up ranting about the horrors of the rain for all the base to hear after coming back from his first introduction to the concept and quickly garnered the attention of the children.

He was mocked for weeks and had photos taken of him panicking plastered on the wall for all to see. Not a spark was able to take him seriously for some time after that... but then again the rest of the team did not fare much better once the children managed to bribe the stories of the rest of the team's experiences out of Agent Fowler.

Miko: *Wheezing* Y- You dug a hole into a mountain just to get out of the rain!

Bulkhead: *Stuttering and failing to defend himself* We didn't know alright! Besides, Jackie isn't any better!

Wheeljack: *His mouth filled with energon* Wut?

Ah yes. Poor Wheeljack had a rather... aggressive response to the rain upon arriving to earth. His first response to the wet liquid was to try and get to his ship by driving as fast as he was able. Only he instead ended up skidding across the ground due to mud and puddles and flew right into a pond where he swiftly transformed and started screaming thinking he was going to be melted alive. He flailed and cried out in the highest pitch available to him with his voice configuration and scrambled out in terror. And unfortunately for him, Arcee got him on camera.

His shame was shared with the human children in no time. And so hoping to make another bot suffer as he had, Wheeljack tried to throw Ultra Magnus under the bus after he arrived. Unfortunately for him, Ultra Magnus handled the rain with expert precision and followed protocol to the letter. He found suitable shelter without outwardly panicking and waited out the rain while Wheeljack sulked. And so later Wheeljack walked into base with a bucket of water and threw it at Ultra Magnus, finally garnering a reaction from him.

Ultra Magnus: *Clutching at his face in horror* What. Have. You. DONE.

Wheeljack: *Suddenly very afraid for his life* It's just water... Sir

Simply put, Wheeljack nearly got his aft beaten and likely would have been killed on the spot if Optimus hadn't stepped in.

The children keep a recording of Ultra Magnus's reaction to water and replay it for him every now and then to watch him shift uncomfortably.

[lavend-ler]

oooh what are your Normaler headcanons

anon, I mean this in the nicest way possible but,, u gotta be a little more specific 😅 I have soooo so many headcanons. most of them I share via my fics! if u wanna hear some abt a specific topic/time/anything else I will gladly give them to u! here are some of my general ones I remembered for a good start:

they remind me of sunny golden spring afternoons when the weather is just right to spend time outside. I imagine them going around the Valley in the early summer sun, holding hands, picking Truffula fruit, being happy and in love. Norma's draw and long curls sway on the wind, while Once-ler with one hand holds hers and with other he hangs onto his hat

their most "usual" date is having a picnic in the Valley! Once-ler brings the snacks and Norma brings all the equipment. Once shares his songs and Norma plays with animals

they love to spend time simply talking with each other. Once tells stories of success and hope, while Norma shares stories of her everyday life

actually, that's the point, they're opposites, perfectly working together. Once-ler is a dreamer, head in the clouds, wishing of the brightest future. Norma is down to Earth, collected but with that wild spark within her. he values dreams, she values stability. that's what enamoured them abt each other - with Once, Norma gets away from her everyday life so that silly lanky guy would make her fantasies come true. with Norma, Once steadies down, becomes more perceptive and values the little things in life more

Norma is an extravert and Once-ler is an introvert. sometimes, when Once feels too drained, Norma simply holds him down, not expecting he'd say anything to her. and Once loves being wrapped around her, face buried in her curls. yes, he's a chatterbox but sometimes Norma's presence and the sound of her breathing means everything to him.

Once picked up reading bc of Norma (he likes romances, fantasy novels and memoirs), while Norma branched out with her music more bc of Once (before she liked solely heavy music like SOAD or Death Grips but now she listens to variety of things Once recommends like classic rock, jazz and even some classical!)

sometimes Norma talks all the way, venting her day out. Once never stops her, in fact, he loves listening to her talk, no matter the topic and supports her however he can

Norma fell first. Once fell harder

Norma is great at games of all kinds! she's just very slow at getting her point. Once often gets impatient ESP since no matter what, she always wins. their Mario Kart nights are the worst

when Once-ler found out Norma loves gardening, he started buying her various flowers to the point she had to say "listen, I love these but u're flooding my apartment"

Once is a total lightweight so whenever they go out partying it mostly ends with Norma draggings those overgrown limbs home

if life ended up differently, they would love to have more than 1 child

I don't thin they ever considered each other a "fling". in my hc Once-ler is demisexual so it took him time to realize his feelings and Yeah, he knew she was Important. so did Norma actually, she started liking Once so much, she knew no matter what, she simply wanted him in her life

if I had to describe them in 1 song it'd be either A Dustland Fairytale by The Killers or their cover of Romeo and Juliet or Whistle For The Choir by The Fratellis (the line "so if u're crazy, I don't care u amaze me" is SO them)

[gaviicreates]

Sky Blanket 2024 - Q1

Hi crafty friends! I am incredibly overdue on sharing an update on my sky blanket for 2024. If you are new to this project, some things to know:

This is my version of the temperature blanket this year - one row a day. Except instead of temperature, I am using "what is the sky doing today?" as my scale. The palette is all blues and greys based on how sunny or cloudy it is, going all the way from turquoise blue for the sunniest of sunnies to a dark grey for thunderstorms.

It's based on the year between two dates, not the start of the year. So my Q1 actually begins mid-October '23 and ends mid-January '24. So I am only a month behind sharing. I blame it on the weaving in of ends.

I am actually staying decently caught up! I don't always do the rows right away, but they are fairly quick to work up so I'm finding I can bring myself to current just within a single Sunday if I need to. The harder part has been making sure I record the weather, and there have been more days than I'd like to admit where I barely had a chance to go outside at all. I've been using timeanddate.com if I need to check dates I might have missed to make my best guess for cloud cover.

In Q1 - 92 days total:

Sunny - 30%, 28 days Partly Cloudy - 27%, 25 days Mostly Cloudy - 15%, 14 days Overcast - 12%, 11 days Rain - 13%, 12 days Snow/Ice- 2%, 2 days

I have not yet had a chance to use my granite colorway for thunderstorms. Meanwhile, the cream border will always be around every square. Admittedly in different number so I can get the month to the same consistent 33 rows.

Pattern: Toni Lipsey's/TLYarnCraft's linen square stitch pattern The Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK

The pattern The yarn

(yes I still love the colors of the sky... even though it forces me to weave in too many ends to count)

[thel1ghtningthief]

⚡Cabin 1 in the CDVerse🏛

This is quite long, so it's under a cut!

Also, do y'all want more cabin descriptions or the Zeus kid's profiles next?

Overview: Zeus is the god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law and order. As a result, many of his children have a strong sense of justice and don't take acts they perceive as unjust without a fight. This can lead to children of Zeus seeming standoffish and overly dramatic.

Exterior: The exterior of the cabin is mostly similar to the PJO and HOO graphic novels, with a few changes. Zeus's cabin is the biggest of all the cabins. The cabin is built out of white marble, detailed with pillars and a dome shaped roof. The roof reflects the current weather of Camp Half-Blood, which means it is always either sunny, cloudy, or reflecting the gorgeous view of the night sky. There are 4 pillars on each wall, most spaced 5 feet apart. The entrance to the cabin is set back 5 feet from the beginning of the porch. There is one pillar on either side of the start of the stairs, and one pillars on either side of the door. The gable above the porch is detailed with an eagle, wings spread majestically, in the middle. Around the eagle the marble is carved in an olive branch pattern. The door to the cabin is made of polished bronze that shimmers with holographic lightning patterning the door. Above the door is a small bronze plaque with the number 1 on it.

Interior: Differentiating from canon, the Zeus cabin does have furniture. There are 6 pairs of bunk beds, with three on each side. The bunks are made of evergreen holm oak, and the frames are detailed with lightning bolts, eagles, and an olive leaf pattern. At the back middle of the cabin is the ten foot tall statue of Zeus, glaring imposingly and seemingly watching your every move. The ceiling follows the shape of the domed roof, with an enchanted mosaic showing a current storms from anywhere over the world. Beside the statue on the right sides is a desk, made of the same wood as the bunks. There is a vase, with scenes of Zeus defeating the Titans in the first Titanomachy. In the left corner beside the statue, there is a basic camp sleeping bag. By the sleeping bag, tucked under the caseless pillow, lays a picture of three kids. They look happy. There are marks on the floor leading back to the entrance. To the left of the entrance, there is a matching desk to the right back corner. The vase on this desk is missing. If you were to open the drawer of the desk, there would be a shattered vase and a ripped picture. If you put them back together, the vase would show Heracles' numerous victories, Zeus' proudest moments. The picture would show a woman, standing with her arm around a young girl and the other holding a newborn baby. The woman is looking dissapointedly at the girl, who is ignoring the camera in favour of looking sadly at her baby brother. You close the drawer. On top of the desk is a glass vase, some shriveled olive branch long forgotten crumbled and crushed down to the bottom. If you step back from the desk, the right side of the entrance has a ladder. If you climb the ladder, you would find yourself in the gable over the porch. It's small, with not a lot of room, as it's been stuffed full of extra belongings and clothes that were almost left on the ground during the last cabin inspection.

Vibe: Entering the Zeus cabin can feel a lot like entering a courtroom for the first time: intimidating. The interior of the cabin feels slightly more homey than the exterior, but with a giant statue of Zeus glaring at you from the moment you open the door, it's not the most welcoming place in camp. The cabin can feel suffocating, due to both the constant storm in the ceiling and the loaded history of the cabins most notorious inhabitants.

Details/Symbols: Obviously, there are tons of lighting and cloud motifs scattered everywhere, from carvings on the bunks, made of oak, to the pillars holding up the ceiling. There are several vases lining the walls filled with olive branch. The cabin always smells like it does just after it's rained.

Items: There aren't many notable items in the Zeus cabin, as most of the campers are younger and newer. The most notable item currently in the cabin is one of Zeus' lightning bolts (not the master bolt, obviously).

Traditions: As for the longest time there used to only be one child of Zeus, the campers of Cabin 1 don't have many traditions. The main one as of now is a weekly debate night, where the children of Zeus split into teams for a 'friendly' debate. However, it almost always ends in someone being struck by lightning... Another tradition, if it could be called that, is that every camper has or had a stuffed eagle or bull, most of them brought to camp before being claimed as a coincidence. Their final tradition is flying or climbing to the roof to their cabin to stargaze whenever one of their siblings is feeling down.

Bunks: There are three bunk beds on the side walls, each with two beds stacked on top of each other. The beds are made of evergreen holm oak, and the frames are detailed with an olive branch pattern. The foot board is engraved with the same image of an eagle as the gable over the entrance. The head board is carved with various lightning, sky, and cloud designs. The ladder to the second bunk is at the foot board of each bunk bed. The bottom bunk closest to the entrance on the left side belongs to Laodice Ebner. The bunk above that belongs to Theseus Shaw, the current head counselor. The set behind those two belong to Rex Fitzroy and Azure Sumner. The third set on the left wall belong to Cielo Katz and Jace Merino. The first set on the right wall belong to Oberon Stellato and Ravi Bahl. The bunk at the back right, closest to the Zeus statue on the bottom, belongs to Jason Grace, when he visits. Thalia Grace occasionally stays in the bunk above him

Current Inhabitants: The current head counselor is Theseus Shaw. The other campers are Laodice Ebner, Rex Fitzroy, Azure Sumner, Cielo Katz, Jace Merino, Oberon Stellato, Ravi Bahl, and occasionally Jason and Thalia Grace.

Reference Pictures:

These are both from the riordanverse wiki so I think they're official art, apologies if I'm wrong!

[glittter-vamp]

Ohio Is For Lovers | J.B

CHAPTER 2

Joe Burrow x Reader Series.

Warnings: 18+ only. MDNI. Angst. Explicit Language, Alcohol.

Word Count: 2,219

Read Chapter One Here

A few weeks later:

"Please please pleeaase Y/N! It'll be fun. We'll have unlimited food and drinks!" Mariana begs you for the 50th time. "Mariana, you know how I feel about this after what happened. Some fans will probably get stupid and I don't feel like listening to people call me names, look at me weird or throw some shit at me. I see how football fans can get and I'm good on that." You shake your head as you wash the dirty dish and lay it on the rack to dry. "No! You can't think like that! Don't let these assholes get to you! Ja'Marr is expecting both of us to be there and support the team. C'mon Y/N! Please...we'll have fun!" Mariana pleads again in front of you giving you puppy dog eyes.

Mariana came over before a game today to ask again about going to a Bengals game tonight. You had already told her no multiple times but she kept on insisting because Peyton was out of town for work and Sasha was with her family celebrating her moms birthday, so that left you. So she says, as if she hasn't gone to games with other people or even alone.

"Fine, but this is the only game I'm attending, you can tell Ja'Marr that too." You sigh going to your room to change. "Yes!! Thank you! Thank you!" She squeals as she follows you to your closet. You pick out an oversized black hoodie and black leggings. "You don't have anything with the Bengals on it?" Mariana. "Why would I? I don't even like football." You say starting to change clothes not caring that she was there, this wouldn't be the first time you'd change in front of your friends. "We'll get you something at the game." She nods. "I'll be fine in this." You shake your head knowing you're not going to buy merch of a team a person you really dislike plays on. You put on your white and black Nikes after putting on some socks and throw on an orange beanie. "This good enough?" You ask. "Better than nothing!" Mariana nods. You already had make up on from earlier today so you just retouched it a bit. You grabbed your phone, wallet and keys and made your way out of the apartment with Mariana. "I'm assuming I'm driving?" She asks as you two head down in the elevator. "Duh..." You chuckle. After getting into her car you two drive to the stadium. It was already a mess going into the parking lot with all these screaming drunk fans that tailgated. You were completely dreading being here for who knows how fucking long, you'd pray that crazy mid-west weather would kick in and they cancelled the stupid game but it was a perfectly sunny evening with no clouds in sight. Just you're fucking luck, you thought to yourself.

You two park in valet and security notices Mariana and they kindly lead you two to your seats. People of course were starting to recognize you two more, you would hear whispers from people who looked at you two. "Already hating this." You mutter to Mariana. "It'll be fine! Just keep your head up and keep walking" She reassures you. You two get escorted to your seats after stopping to get some beer and snacks. "See, not so bad." Mariana says. "Mhm." You hum. This was only the start of the night, you can't even imagine what could go wrong. The game finally begins and you smile watching your best friend cheer her boyfriend on. She seemed really happy and you really loved that for her since her last relationship wasn't all that great. She deserved to be happy with her partner.

During the game you got a couple looks and glares from people, mostly young teen girls who were all wearing Joe's stupid jersey. You didn't expect any less but as the game was nearing the end, your phone gets bombarded with notifications from your other friends and siblings. You open the stuff they sent you and they were all links about how you were spotted at the game with Mariana and a spreading rumor around that you were actually here to see and support Joe play, which could only mean to these delusional lying people that you and Joe were most likely an item. You roll your eyes at your phone and let out a big sigh of frustration.

You show Mariana and her Jaw drops. "And you thought I was being dramatic with coming here." You shake your head. "I didn't think that would happen! I'm so sorry Y/N...I'm sure we can clear this up somehow! I'll post that picture of us we took earlier on instagram and caption it in a way that will let everyone know we're both here for Ja'Marr!" She says and you just sit there upset at what was happening all over again. You knew you shouldn't have risked coming here.

When the game finally ends security comes to you and Mariana again. "Which one of you is Y/N Y/L/N?" One of them asks. "Me? What's going on?" You ask confused. People around you were looking at what was happening but thankfully the other security guards told them to keep it moving since they were holding up the line to get out of the section we were in. "Can you follow us?" The man asks. "Not until you tell me what's going on." You shake your head. "Joe Burrow wants a word with you him and Ja'Marr Chase, asked me to escort you two back to them." The large man says lowly near your ear. "Absolutely not." You shake your head. "Y/N...Maybe he can help with all these rumors and speculation. Finally put an end to all this..." Mariana says looking at you with pleading eyes, you knew she felt like crap for begging you come here. You look back at the security guard taking a deep breath and nod. They escort you to these golf carts and you and Mariana hop on. People looked at you both and took more pictures and video's which you despised. They take you where the locker rooms were and lead you to this lounge/ recreational type of area.

"The guys will be out any moment, feel free to help yourself to any drinks or snacks." One of them say. You and Mariana thank them and they leave you two alone. "Have you been here before?" You ask Mariana. "Twice, usually there's more girlfriends and wives in here though, kind of weird it's empty." Mariana says looking around, we were the only two in the room. You sit down and lean back in the seat just thinking about how this was happening. "You okay?" Mariana asks. "Nope." You shake your head. "What's running through your head?" She asks sitting on the arm of the chair next to you. "How I'm probably going to have to move out of Ohio and how I'm probably going to lose my job." You sigh. "Why would any of those happen?" She asks. "Mariana, I love you but you really don't get it do you?" You ask and she shakes her head no. You take a deep breath and let her in the situation.

"My job already threatened termination due to the whole cheating scandal video and I told them that it was just a big misunderstanding which it was but now that I'm here and new rumors are starting...it's going to look like confirmation that I actually did home-wreck and how I am now dating Joe." You sigh. "That's dumb! This is your personal life, even if any of this was true they have no right!" She scoffs. "Yeah but I represent the company and they don't want to be affiliated with someone like that, I'm so done there, I knew I should of stayed home." You rub your temples trying to think about how one stupid drunken night lead to all this. "I can talk to Ja'Marr maybe he can help with finding some good lawyers for you if that happens." Mariana says. "Lawyers for what? What did you two do?" You hear a voice say and you two turn your head to see Ja'Marr.

Mariana explains the situation to him and he shakes his head. "This is fucked up, I love Joe...he's my brother and all but he really threw you under the bus here." Ja'Marr says. "Yeah, well he doesn't think so." You shake your head. Speaking of the fucking devil, Joe walks into the room in some weird colorful sweats that made him look like rejected skittle. "Hey guys." He says mostly to Ja'Marr and Mariana. "Um...we'll leave you two alone. Here are my keys, Ja'Marr can take me home. Take my car, I'll pick it up tomorrow morning" Mariana says handing you the car keys. You say goodbye to Mariana and Ja'Marr and they walk out of the room. Mariana giving you one last supportive look before leaving.

"What is it that you want?" You ask Joe once they leave the room. "Why did you come here?" He asks right off the bat. "What?" You ask confused at that weird question. "Why did you come here? Was it to get back at me or something?" He asks. "What the hell are you talking about? I came here because Mariana begged me for days to attend this stupid game." You roll your eyes. "You just caused a whole lot of shit right now Y/N." Joe says shaking his head visibly upset. "ME!? Oh I'm sorry... was I the one that used you to get back at some girlfriend like we're 17 years old? Was I the one that let this whole shit fall on you and made you look like the bad guy when in reality it you had no idea what the hell was going on and that you even had a girlfriend let alone a girlfriend that was at the same fucking party as us!? How is this MY wrong doing. Tell me...Quickly." You cross your arms.

"You knew this was still blowing over, why the hell would you come to one of my games? It's to coincidental, I know you did this to rile shit back up! Stop acting so innocent." He spat back. "Your game? Since when were you the only player on the field. Your ego is out of this fucking world, especially since you think I'd be here to sabotage you in some way like you'd matter that much to me to do so. Get a fucking grip." You scoff.

"You can't come back here, I mean it. My publicist is on my ass right now about this and I have enough shit to worry about than worrying about you and your bullshit that you're causing me." Joe says angrily and you laugh. "What was it that you said to me last time when I told you my issue with this? Oh! that's right...I can't control what others say and it's not that serious. Stop being ridiculous, Joe." You smirk at him before you walk out of the room leaving Joe fuming just like you were at that party. Pay back is a fucking bitch.

************************

Later that night as you were getting out of the shower, Mariana calls you up. "Hey!" You answer after putting her on speaker. "Girl... what the hell happened?" Mariana asks. "About what?" You ask drying your body with the towel. "Joe just called Ja'Marr fuming about you, that he needed to stop giving you tickets to the games or whatever the hell it was that he was saying." Mariana said which made you laugh. "What a fucking idiot, as if anyone could control me going to one of their games, even if I got tickets through you guys or not, I can still buy my own." You shake your head as you put on your Pajamas.

"I just don't get how he doesn't see that he's the one in the wrong? Even Ja'Marr told him that he was being immature & out of pocket. And let me say he didn't like that one bit! Joe expects him to be on his side." Mariana sighs. "Of course he didn't like it, the guy is a narcissistic asshole." You scoff. "Well, anyway...I'll let you get to bed and stop bothering you with this. I just wanted to see if you were alright. I'll be over early tomorrow to get my car, hope that's okay?" She asks. "Yeah, I'll be up, just text me when you're on your way. See you then." You tell her grabbing your toothbrush. "See you." She says before hanging up. You couldn't help but to laugh to yourself about how much of an immature asshole Joe was. He could of cleared things up and controlled the dumpster fire he created but instead he wanted to play victim, which resulted in it now biting his ass. It was about time he got some of his own medicine.

After you brushed your teeth and moisturized, you plugged your phone up to the charger on your nightstand and got into bed. "What a fucking day." You say to yourself as you turn off your bedside light and got into bed, letting today's drama fade away from your dreams.